Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners, an innovation center created by the City of Peachtree Corners, has launched one of the world's first fleet of teleoperated e-scooters ready for public use.
Thanks to a partnership with micormobility startups Go X and Tortoise, 100 teleoperated scooters --- scooters that are controlled remotely --- will launch on Curiosity Lab's autonomous vehicle track for testing and data analytics. Go X is behind the scooter development and ride hailing app, while Tortoise created the remote repositioning system all the scooters are equipped with.
The hope is to solve one of the biggest problems Atlanta has had with micromobility since the first e-scooters hit our streets in the summer of 2018: littered sidewalks. Betsy Plattenburg, executive director at Curiosity Lab, said the teleoperated technology will allow scooters to come to patrons who are looking for them, return to a docking station after each use and go through a sanitation process after each use --- an essential step during Covid-19. All Go X Apollo employees will go through a daily Covid-19 health check and each scooter will receive a new sticker after each sanitization to show it has been thoroughly cleaned.
"We were intrigued by this idea because we thought it solved the problems the City of Atlanta and other cities were experiencing," Plattenburg said.
Curiosity Lab has garnered interest from companies for the micromobility and teleopeartions capabilities thanks to their testing track, Plattenburg said. The goal is to go from teleoperated tech to autonomous, after collecting enough data for a company's AI to learn.
"Maybe (this tech) could get the cities that had banned scooters to think about them again," she said.
The fleet, which is the first group of teleoperated e-scooters to run on a public street, will run for six months.
"I think one of the things is convenience. If the scooter comes to you --- they’re all going to be geofenced to Tech Park Atlanta --- I think it will change the paradigm," Plattenburg said.
Curiosity Lab encourages other companies, ranging from startups to developed companies, to use the Lab to test smart city or mobility technology in a living environment, Plattenburg said. Each company will have free 5G access, infrastructure, intellectual property protection and an environment with general liability insurance for both driven and driverless vehicles.
"I would just emphasis that we’re this unique opportunity for startups and mature companies to test for free," she said.
