U-Blox blocks Bird e-scooters from pavements

  • October 25, 2021
  • Steve Rogerson

Micromobility company Bird is using technology from Swiss company U-Blox to prevent its e-scooters being used on pavements and footpaths.

The smart sidewalk protection sensor-fusion technology is integrated into Bird’s vehicles.

As more and more cities look to integrate shared micromobility into the climate action plans that focus on reduced carbon emissions in their communities, technology that prevents pavement riding has become increasingly important. Through a collaboration with U-Blox, Bird co-developed the integrated sensor-fusion system that tracks location with centimetre-level precision.

By combining U-Blox’s Zed-F9R dead-reckoning module with centimetre-level sidewalk mapping and Bird’s suite of onboard vehicle sensors, the integrated system effectively and efficiently detects and prevents pavement or footpath riding in real time. For example, as opposed to traditional GPS with cloud-based maps that can take more than 15 seconds to respond, Bird’s smart sidewalk protection can safely bring a vehicle that has entered onto a pavement to a safe stop while allowing the rider to walk the vehicle back to the roadway or bike lane.

“Everything we build at Bird is centred around safety and scalability; sidewalk riding detection is no exception,” said Scott Rushforth, chief vehicle officer at Bird. “After three years of building, testing and piloting a range of technologies including but not limited to on board cameras, GPS tracking, ultra-wideband and beacons, we found that each was insufficient with regard to accuracy, precision, immediacy or scalability. Our testing led us to a collaboration with U-Blox which resulted in the development of our end-to-end sensor fusion that meets our criteria.”

Bird’s sidewalk detection technology is being piloted in Milwaukee and San Diego, and is expected to be piloted in Madrid in early 2022.

“We are very excited about this collaboration between U-Blox and Bird,” said Alex Ngi, product manager of positioning at U-Blox. “Our centimetre-level precise GNSS positioning technology will now be implemented in the expanding micromobility industry, strengthening our contribution to a safer and more ecological world.”

Bird is an electric vehicle company dedicated to bringing affordable, environmentally friendly transportation such as e-scooters and e-bikes to communities across the world. Founded in 2017 by transportation pioneer Travis VanderZanden, Bird provides fleets of shared micro electric vehicles to riders in more than 300 cities globally.

U-Blox has its headquarters in Thalwil, Switzerland, with offices in Europe, Asia and the USA.