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Electric scooters have become a popular mode of transportation
in many cities, but the vehicles tend to break in a matter of
months, raising costs for startups. Other companies also are
looking to improve hardware, including scooter network operator
Bird, which said earlier this year it had started to design its
own more rugged scooters.
Assaf Biderman, founder and CEO of Superpedestrian, said a test
of 150 scooters in Washington, D.C., found a 73% reduction in
operating costs. The diagnostic software was able to prevent
some breakages, such as an overheating battery, and also cut
labor costs by pinpointing what needed to be fixed.
Biderman, who is also an Associate Director of MIT's research
lab for improving cities with technology, Senseable City Lab,
said technology he patented in 2014 can detect when brakes or
battery fail or are about to fail and alert the operator.
The roughly $600 scooters, a price that depends on volume of
order, can last 2,500 rides.
Biderman views Superpedestrian as a software company rather than
a hardware maker and said he would consider licensing his
technology to other firms.
The latest funding round was co-led by Spark Capital, which was
a seed investor in Superpedestrian, and General Catalyst. The
company has so far raised a total of $64 million.
Superpedestrian didn't disclose the valuation for the capital
raising.
(Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee; editing by Richard Pullin)
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