Eire’s first e-scooter take a look at begins on the Dublin Metropolis College campus

The e-scooter pilot project will enable Dublin City University (DCU) researchers to analyze data and inform future e-scooter rollouts both in Dublin and across Ireland.

Ireland’s first e-scooter test was launched on Dublin City University’s five campuses. This e-scooter research pilot, initiated by Minister Hildegarde Naughton, involves the collaboration of four organizations: the e-scooter operator TIER, the Irish micromobility technology platform Luna, the Insight SFI Research Center For Data Analytics and Smart DCU (a district of Smart Dublin). The process is parallel to efforts to get e-scooters street legal across Ireland.

“Ireland is a real leader in the use of e-scooters and I am very much looking forward to seeing this pilot take off on the DCU campus,” said Minister Hildegarde Naughton TD.

“This is an interesting and exciting time in transport – the innovation and dynamism can be felt here today. It is now my job, and the government’s job, to do our part in promoting the necessary legislation for the safe use of e-scooters in Ireland. I look forward to seeing the progress of this pilot project across campus, and I am particularly interested in hearing its results and findings, which we are sure to feed into the further development of legislation in this area. “

The trial, which has started operations on the DCU campus – and will take place between campuses as soon as the law allows it – is intended to set the bar for e-scooter safety standards in Ireland and around the world.

As part of the project, TIER and Luna are equipping a fleet of 30 scooters with advanced computer vision technology that enables DCU-based Insight researchers to explore a new source of smart city data. With Luna technology, TIER e-scooters are able to run pedestrian detection and lane segmentation algorithms so that the vehicles can recognize how many people are on their way and prevent vehicles from being used on footpaths.

The pilot project is not only the world’s first academic-industrial research project focusing on computer vision in e-scooters, but also Ireland’s first large-scale structured e-scooter test. The aim of the research project is to simultaneously improve the safety of e-scooters and to explore the smart city possibilities of micro-mobility vehicles equipped with computer vision and the valuable data that they can generate on behalf of everyone involved.

The pilot will run until early 2022 and will also explore other findings, particularly on user behavior and attitudes, that could feed into any commercial shared e-scooter programs that could be rolled out in the future in Dublin and elsewhere across Ireland.

“This is such an important research pilot for TIER in Ireland and we are delighted to have launched this study across the five campuses of Dublin City University,” added Fred Jones, TIER Regional General Manager for Northern Europe.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for in-depth research into smart city applications of e-scooters and modal shift as we work with Luna and Insight to help the university reduce its carbon footprint and have a more sustainable, safer first and last Mile to offer public transport solution. We hope to be able to apply all the findings from the project to future TIER operations in Ireland. “