June 2019

Over the past few months of running our Scootbee trials in the One-North district of Singapore, we have been constantly surprised by how people react to Scootbee when it is redistributing by itself from one place to another.

A common reaction is to pull a Scootbee back by its handlebars, for fear that it may dash off uncontrollably across a road or crossing. Just as the pedestrian is about to happily walk off with the knowledge of a good deed done, the Scootbee starts moving off again, much to the pedestrian's chagrin.

Once, a group of work colleagues presumably headed off to lunch, saw a Scootbee from a distance and decided to have a pre-meal workout - three of them lifted a Scootbee off the ground and put it behind a barrier, and the fourth person directed the movements (he must be the work supervisor). That was a tough one to recover from.

Another time, an excited cab driver who had never seen a self-moving scooter decided to angle his vehicle in very closely for a better look, and in the process almost squashed the Scootbee with the front wheels. Luckily, the Scootbee rolled away in time to live another day with just some scrapes and bruises.

We have also had fun with Scootbee telling a waiting rider where it is, based on a simple turning-on-the-spot and a few camera images pieced together. No more micro-zooming into an app map to find out which side of the road a scooter is!