Superpedestrian, the MIT spin-off engineering firm behind LINK, “The Volvo of E-Scooters,” today unveiled a breakthrough active safety system dubbed “Pedestrian Defense.” The new system doesn’t just detect unsafe behaviors like riding on the sidewalk, but puts a stop to them in real time in order to prevent serious injuries. The safety breakthrough is made possible through the acquisition of Navmatic, and the application of their patented Super Fusion technology, which combines multiple sources of real-time vehicle dynamics data to yield the most accurate, practical and reliable fleet positioning and vehicle control available today. Superpedestrian finalized the acquisition of Navmatic, a startup focused on micromobility safety, in June.

Superpedestrian’s new Pedestrian Defense capabilities will resolve deeply ingrained challenges in micromobility that have led many cities to restrict, sanction and even ban shared e-scooters.

By integrating Navmatic’s Super Fusion technology into Superpedestrian’s existing Vehicle Intelligence (VI) platform, Pedestrian Defense was born to ensure that unsafe behaviors like sidewalk riding, wrong-way riding, aggressive swerving and repeated hard braking are detected, then immediately corrected by slowing or safely stopping the scooter. Pedestrian Defense is a unique system which makes Superpedestrian the only micromobility provider that can reliably detect and correct unsafe rider behavior in real time, and at scale across an entire fleet. The new technology integration also allows Superpedestrian to translate sensor data into other interventions, from direct notifications and incentives for riders, to comprehensive dashboards for policymakers that show safety trends and illustrate locations prone to unsafe behavior or increased chance of a crash.

Superpedestrian is launching pilot demonstrations of Pedestrian Defense across the country this month, with full LINK fleet applications beginning in Fall 2021.