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One Way to Keep the Sidewalk Clear: Remote-Controlled Scooter-Bots

citylab.com

1–10 of 22 posts

Re: One Way to Keep the Sidewalk Clear: Remote-Controlled Scooter-Bots

#2
I applaud this idea, but at the same time I feel like the use cases where this will actually work are pretty limited. I doubt the scooters will be able to cross a street or navigate any kind of actual obstacles, so you're going to be limited to corralling them somewhere on the block that isn't occluded by obstacles. Also, scooters are just an awful target for autonomous movement for the same reasons they're pretty crappy to ride: high center of gravity, small solid wheels, and no real built-in self-balancing features (bikes self-balance to a reasonable degree due to having large wheels acting as gyroscopes).

If you want to get rid of humans for pickup/dropoff and charging, you'd be better off building super drones that can literally pick up scooters wherever they are and drop them on a roving flatbed for charging. Or at least put an IR strobe beacon on them so they're easier to find either by chargers or locating drones.

Re: One Way to Keep the Sidewalk Clear: Remote-Controlled Scooter-Bots

#5
I'm sure emusk got some spare falcon 1 they could use to actually retrofit this concept onto standard scooters. /s Shall we remind ourselves the problem we started with here was to transport people? I thing i got lost at the point where sweatshop vc corps backed by surveillance hungry bigtechs flooded an unregulated market with gadgets that now litter the public space. If the form seems to look like a troll, the content is not. Here's some reference on why these are greenwashed gadgets:

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2da8/...

Re: One Way to Keep the Sidewalk Clear: Remote-Controlled Scooter-Bots

#6
post #4

When I read the title I was hoping it was a strategy to remove trash, needles, and human waste from the streets of San Francisco. But no, the only problem addressed here is keeping scooters off the sidewalk.

San Francisco problems require San Francisco solutions.

Re: One Way to Keep the Sidewalk Clear: Remote-Controlled Scooter-Bots

#7
post #2

I applaud this idea, but at the same time I feel like the use cases where this will actually work are pretty limited. I doubt the scooters will be able to cross a street or navigate any kind of actual obstacles, so you're going to be limited to corralling them somewhere on the block that isn't occluded by obstacles. Also, scooters are just an awful target for autonomous movement for the same reasons they're pretty cr…

Using obstacles, The robots could probably be coerced into a DoS (denial of sidewalk) attack.

Re: One Way to Keep the Sidewalk Clear: Remote-Controlled Scooter-Bots

#8
post #4

When I read the title I was hoping it was a strategy to remove trash, needles, and human waste from the streets of San Francisco. But no, the only problem addressed here is keeping scooters off the sidewalk.

My first take on keeping the sidewalk clear was snow, of course, and wondering how you'd get enough battery life to push any useful amount. But seeing the domain name made it obvious they didn't mean snow.

Re: One Way to Keep the Sidewalk Clear: Remote-Controlled Scooter-Bots

#9
post #4

When I read the title I was hoping it was a strategy to remove trash, needles, and human waste from the streets of San Francisco. But no, the only problem addressed here is keeping scooters off the sidewalk.

I made eye contact with a homeless person pooping again today. This has become a regular part of life in the United States.

Thank god we have a log(n) solution to the epidemic of scooters on streets. Thank you technology. I hope all the Series A investors were able to get that new electric Porsche and didn't have to settle for a Corvette like some filthy commoner.

Re: One Way to Keep the Sidewalk Clear: Remote-Controlled Scooter-Bots

#10
post #2

I applaud this idea, but at the same time I feel like the use cases where this will actually work are pretty limited. I doubt the scooters will be able to cross a street or navigate any kind of actual obstacles, so you're going to be limited to corralling them somewhere on the block that isn't occluded by obstacles. Also, scooters are just an awful target for autonomous movement for the same reasons they're pretty cr…

Not that it detracts from your point, but it’s a common myth that the gyroscopic effect from the wheels is the main reason bicycles are easy to balance. Take a look at https://ezramagazine.cornell.edu/SUMMER11/ResearchSpotlight....
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