In recent years the number of scooters, electric scooters, and bikes increased unavoidably. The vehicles are environment-friendly, practical, and cheaper than private cars, so urbanites love and prefer them. This new transport model is called micro-mobility, and it is especially very popular among young people. But not everyone shares their enthusiasm about this new transport model. A lot of urbanites complain about these vehicles. Here are the main complaints: The users park their vehicles on sidewalks which disturb pedestrians and shopowners. And these vehicles can reach 25-30 km/h speed, but still, a driving license is not needed to use them. With an unresponsible user, this speed can be dangerous for pedestrians and also for drivers.

‍These are serious complaints such that some cities had to take some precautions and defined some limitations for the use of these vehicles. Istanbul is one of these cities. In some districts, local governments collect scooters that are parked on sidewalks or completely forbid sharing scooters. But are these precautions really enough or fair? We feel the effects of the climate crisis every day more -strongly. Do we have really the right to forbid an environment-friendly transport model? Yes, electric scooters and bikes can be a big threat, especially to elders, disabled and with child people. But we need to define needed regulations and integrate them into urban transport and finding a solution is not really hard with technology!

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Problems of Sharing E-scooters and The Regulations

The easiest way to prevent a problem caused by new technological development is to permit the development! Actually, this is what Parisiens did. The public referendum had recorded participants, and %90 of the citizens voted to permit sharing scooters and bikes. This result is not a surprise considering that 3 people died and over 450 people get injured in electric scooter accidents.

Permitting solves the problem. But we don't have a chance to toss out clean transport modules easily. And cutting a technological development so sharply is not acceptable in this age. Blaming only the users is also not realistic or fair. Local governments should define legal regulations, and entrepreneurs of sharing scooters must follow these regulations strictly. Otherwise, other cities will follow Paris, and all the citizens will miss this opportunity.
Let's look at the problems, defined solutions, and in which steps technology can help.

High speed: Electrical scooters can reach  40-45 km/h speed. And this speed can cause serious injuries and even deaths when they hit pedestrians. But this problem can be easily solved. Many cities defined speed limits and forced the sharing scooter companies to follow them. Or they can not be used in these cities. Period. This speed limit was 25km/h at the beginning. But city governments changed it in recent years. The speed limit for sharing scooters is 15 km in Istanbul, Moscow, and Tokyo; 20km/h in  Berlin, Oslo, Stockholm, and London; 16km/h in Washington. Helsinki and Rome didn't change the speed limit of 25km/h. To create a safer environment, companies should set up their vehicles, and local governments should control them strictly.

‍Parking: The parked scooters are another big problem. Some users park their scooters on the sidewalks, in front of shops or houses, and disturb other citizens. Some companies created a solution for this problem. Users have to take a picture of parked vehicles and upload it to the system. If they don't park appropriately, the system doesn't allow them to rent again.

‍This is a good solution and can be enhanced more. Scooter companies can create blacklists like financial institutions and share them with other companies. The users who have more penalty points than the defined one can be on the blacklist and can not rent a shared scooter from any company. Do you think about how you can cheat the system? For example, uploading an old photo. That is not going to happen. Because comparing the location of the photo and the scooter is an easy task for technology. Users can not upload an old photo, and cheat the system.
Age limit: Electrical scooter doesn't require any license. But governments think that there must be an age limit. This age limit is 12 in some countries and reaches 15 in others. But how will we verify the users' age? That's the job of technology companies. The users will introduce their id cards, OCR will read the birthdate, and the system will not continue the process if the user is too young. You say that a young person can use someone else's identity. Nope. Adding a face recognition module will solve this problem. Users will introduce their faces after their id cards. And the system will compare the introduced face with the face from the id card.

‍Face recognition can be used for blacklists too. With adding face recognition in blacklists, the blocked users can not rent a scooter by using someone else's id card.

Drunk drivers: Drunk drivers are the biggest threat, like in motorized vehicles. Smart cars achieved some improvements in this issue. Smart cameras watch drivers during driving and track facial expressions. They understand that if the driver is drunk, tired, too stressed, etc... They warn the driver and even stop the car. This can be adapted into the scooter apps, and drunk drivers can be detected.

As you can see, it is possible to integrate new technologies into social needs by considering social rules. Especially when we have all these opportunities provided by technology. But all the actors should move together. Local governments, shared scooter companies, technology companies, and users. With this alliance, problems can be solved fast, and sustainable travel can enhance safely.

Where does Techsign take part in all these?

‍So what can we do as Techsign? Our job is onboarding customers remotely in a safe way. We provide safety for customers, firms, and the whole sector. People think that only financial institutions need KYC solutions. But as you can see, many sectors can benefit from these technologies.  
For age detection, using OCR to have the birth date directly from the id card is safer than the user's declaration. To check that users don't have someone else's id card by face recognition. Again by using face recognition, to check whether the user is on the blacklist, or not. And even PayByFace can be used for payments. With Techsign, all these things are possible and easy.

‍Do you need more reasons to work with Techsign?

Here you are:

-Techsign provides end-to-end KYC solutions but also needed modules too. So the customers can only buy what they need.
-Techsign develops all technologies at home. Techsign's OCR knows Latin, Arabic, and Cyrill alphabets. It knows all kinds of passports and can learn any national id card in one week. So tourists can use sharing scooters too.
-Techsign’s face recognition technology has a success rate of  99,2%. Users can not rent scooters by using their older sister's id card!

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To get further information about our solutions, please contact us!

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