The Last Mile by Segway: Recent Episodes
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This is The Last Mile - Segway Commercial. Join the people of Segway as we discuss industry trends and our vision of the future of transportation.
Moritz Meenen, Co-founder and CEO of ElectricFeel, sat in with host Shelby Skrhak to discuss the latest in shared electric mobility. Meenen’s company is a shared electric mobility software platform based in Europe helping companies launch and scale shared electric mobility vehicles.
The world of micro-mobility has been a bit of a Wild West. Mass adoption of docking stations could change that, driving benefits for manufacturers, cities, users and the environment.
Those tuning in from the United States may recall the disjointed and unstructured rollouts that micro-mobility companies like Lime and Bird had in metropolitan areas. On the other side of the world, however, green scooters are having their spot in the limelight right now. To understand what made these companies a success when others failed, host Daniel Litwin meets with Ahmed Al Teneiji, CEO and founder of Skurrt. Skurrt is a green scooter company founded in Dubai that has quickly grown to compete with major players in the region, like Lime and TIER.
Like most markets, the first half of 2020 proved a bumpy ride for the micromobility sector. But through resiliency and collaboration, many industry players closed out the year fielding more demand than ever for sustainable and sharable vehicle systems. Across hardware and software, working together will pave the road for a successful 2021. In this podcast, Tony Ho, VP of Global Business Development for Segway, and Vince Cifani, CEO and Founder of micromobility SaaS platform Joyride, speak about the impact COVID-19 had on the industry, and how their companies’ collaborative efforts will ultimately improve micromoiblity for end-users.
Tony Ho, VP of Global Business Development for Segway, provided his thoughts on how the pandemic’s affected the transportation industry and what exciting innovations Segway’s been working on to improve micro-mobility.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was worried product supply from China would be heavily impacted,” Ho said. “But it turned out the supplier scare wasn’t long, because everyone else shut down due to the pandemic, and the situation became a demand shock.”
If there is a silver lining to the COVID-19 crisis, Ho said it's that the micro-mobility industry experienced a relatively quick comeback. Ho attributes a boom in some areas to people looking for different modes of transportation that don’t involve crowds, unlike traditional methods like buses or trains.
Shifting focus away from the pandemic and onto what’s new with Segway, Ho said advancements in robotics and AI over the past few years drive technology and innovation within the company.
“The computer power and machine learning in robotics are advancing, and the cost is getting cheaper and cheaper,” Ho said. “The need and demand for automation in micro-mobility also provides the impetus for the interest in AI technology.”
Ho believes the micro-mobility movement is still in its infancy, and technology is just starting to find its place in shaping the future's transit products.
Can AI and robotics bring the operating costs of micro-mobility ride-sharing fleets down? Ho said the answer is yes.
“A lot of the autonomous driving technology that exists today can be borrowed and used for kick scooters,” he said.
One solution Segway found to solve some issues in kick scooters that made automation difficult was to add a third wheel that encourages better self-balancing.
"The three-wheel scooters self-balance and appear to be safer to ride due to their added stability,” Ho said.
Starting your own fleet with Segway Discovery couldn’t be simpler. In a few short steps, you can launch and scale your own scooter-sharing business, driving revenue with a ready-made solution.
Segway Discovery provides turnkey solutions ready to help manage your e-scooter fleet from the get-go without sacrificing tangible benefits like proprietary, IoT-enabled scooters with sophisticated API functionality, a highly intuitive and real-time dashboard, stable and user-friendly cloud services, and dedicated and efficient customer service.
You’ll also receive the ability to select the solution that best matches your needs – our basic solution stands ready to offer white-label scooters with pre-installed IoT functionality and powerful APIs, while our premium solution expands on that concept with the addition of mobile apps and an operational dashboard.
Ready to get started? Follow these easy steps.
- Apply – Tell us your operating plan and share with us your vision for your business. When we know what drives you, we can help you find your ideal solution.
- Purchase – Once we know how we can best serve you, we’ll work with you to flesh out the perfect solution for your operation.
- Operate – Put your dream into motion! We’ll deliver your scooters and get you up to speed on Segway Discovery’s software solutions, giving you the tools to seamlessly kick off your operation.
At Segway Discovery, we’re committed to getting your custom scooter solution off the ground as efficiently as possible, prepping you to satisfy today’s immense last-mile transportation demand.
With a Segway Discovery solution, you can discover and rediscover the joy of shared mobility.
To learn more and begin your Segway Discovery journey, visit segwaydiscovery.com/solutions.
Today there are many options for people to move around the city without having to use an automobile. Micro-mobility vehicles are gaining popularity, and not just from everyday pedestrians looking to go from door to door. Segways and e-scooters are used in tourism, paramedics, the industrial world, and law enforcement.
Chris Szydlowski, CEO of Canada West Segway, and founder of OGO Scooters was on hand for this episode of The Last Mile: Powered by Segway to talk about the changing ways in which people move around.
Why are city municipalities looking at alternatives like Segway products? Szydlowski has an idea.
“They’re facing the same challenges as everyone else is. The cost of vehicles is high, the emissions are high, and the impact on the environment is high,” he said.
Canada recognizes the potential personal electric vehicles can provide, and recently changed laws to make the use of such vehicles more accessible for municipalities.
Szydlowski admits people still have an over-dependency on their automobiles, but he believes that getting over preconceived notions regarding micro mobility vehicles and seeing first-hand how easy they can be to use, will increase these vehicles popularity over time.
Is there one particular city that is leading the way in personal micro-mobility vehicle use? Szydlowski wouldn’t go so far as saying this city was the leader, but Edmonton is leading the charge in Canada when it comes to Segway and e-scooter acceptance.
Electric scooters have exploded onto the sidewalks of major metropolis’ worldwide, from Chicago to Austin, to Barcelona, and even New York City. Scooter share programs have been largely dominated by transportation giants. But the scooter-sharing industry is seeing interest from small-businesses in minor municipalities, too.
On this episode of Segway's The Last Mile, Gerri Moriarty, VP of business development at Segway Discovery, explains how small-town entrepreneurs are disrupting the scooter-share industry and instigating change to how this micro-transportation is managed.
When Segway Discovery first entered the e-transportation scene, it focused and capitalized upon the tourist market.
“I think the fundamental thing that drove those businesses was that people wanted a unique experience, and electric allowed a lot more territory to be covered,” Moriarty said.
Segway Discovery’s experience in this market has primed them to be an exceptional consulting company for electric transit. Today, that’s exactly what Segway Discovery does.
“We don’t want to become operators, we don’t want to run these programs ourselves, but we know that we can supply more than just hardware and help people to launch their businesses,” Moriarty said.
For small-town entrepreneurs who see a market for e-transportation in their community, Segway Discovery helps these businesses set up their fleet, app, and logistics while leaving the local intel to those who know it best.
As the climate warms and communities look for more sustainable forms of transportation, e-scooters are gaining ground in cities big and small.
Whether you live in Chicago, Austin, Atlanta, or San Diego, you have likely seen scooters make their way into the nation’s major urban hubs. These scooters are the latest development in micro-mobility, helping transport people short distances with ease and efficiency.
Today we explore the world of micro-mobilty on this episode of The Last Mile, powered by Segway. With the recent boom of scooters to America’s major cities, investors and consumers may be wondering what’s next for this new industry. Scooters exploded onto the scene, so where do they go from here? On this episode we talk about projections for the future of micro-mobility and innovations in the pipeline with Tony Ho, President of Global Business Development at Segway-Ninebot.
One thing is clear, young consumers have accepted scooters with gusto. And not just in the USA, scooters have taken off in European countries and developing countries as well. Still, the scooters pose challenges for some cities as they struggle with different bylaws, changing seasons, and inconsistent bicycle-friendly infrastructure. Ho sees these challenges as opportunities for engineers to innovate and improve.
“Once a scooter is turning from a toy into a transportation device, a lot of the engineering and technology side of the feature needs to be built into the scooters,” Ho said.
This means prototyping scooter design that absorbs more shock, handles uneven terrain, and utilizes AI to the best of its ability.
“AI, it’s critical,” he said.
By levering technology, scooters can become safer and more responsive. Ho even predicts there will soon be a day where we will summon scooters, much like hailing a cab.
With transportation one of the largest sources of global warming, humankind must find another way to get from Point A to Point B. Max Rastelli, Owner of HFX e-Scooters joins this episode of Segway's The Last Mile to discuss the micro-mobility revolution and why this solution to the first mile/last mile problem is here to stay.
Rastelli has been an instrumental player in implementing personal transportation into the city of Halifax, Novia Scotia, offering an alternative to personal vehicles as a means of getting from point A to point B.
“Being a Segway tour operator and dealer for a number of years, we always had this vision of micro-mobility or something that could replace a car or vehicle that was friendly to the planet, good at reducing greenhouse emissions—helping to reduce traffic congestion, helping to get cars off the roads. So, it’s kind of been in our DNA for a number of years here,” Rastelli said.
For years, cities have been promoting public transportation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, yet the problem of getting the commuter from their origin (homes/point A) to the transit hub, then from the transit hub’s final spot to their ultimate destination (offices/point B), still remains.
“Unless you can make that first mile/last mile problem cheap, convenient, and in some way, have it be integrated with public transit systems—if it’s not convenient, what do people do,” asks Rastelli. “They may want to take the bus, but at the end of the day, many people just get into their cars because it’s simply not convenient to get to that first mile/last mile. And really, there’s only been a couple of choices—you either walk or you take a bicycle.”
But scooter technology, or rather, the micro-mobility revolution has made a huge impact, exciting investors and the eco-conscious consumer.
“This is why we’re calling it a revolution, because all of a sudden, it’s like WOW, this might actually make a big difference," he said.
Listen to hear more about the micro-mobility revolution, Segway’s influence in mobility transformation, and the routes and paths Rastelli has traversed to implement e-scooter technology into the urban planning of his home city of Halifax.
The people have spoken: electric scooters are in, and though there’s been backlash on sharing programs from major cities, other municipalities are realizing there’s potential value in adjusting to this growing trend: increased commerce, happier citizens, transformative technology. Cities like Austin, TX, aren’t sweeping these scooters off the streets, they’re passing ordinances and working with sharing companies to integrate at a municipal level. What does this mean for the future of electric scooters and ride-sharing programs?
On today’s podcast, we sat down with Kevin Christy, director of customer service for consumer products for Segway, to break down all things electric scooters, from user safety, to financial forecasts in the transportation industry, to changing city design, to environmental impact. “I think the demand is there, and the acceptance is there, and kind of what’s missing is the social piece of it,” Christy said.
Do you remember the first time you saw a Segway? If so, that memory probably also involves listening to your first iPod while waiting in line to see the first Harry Potter movie. For transportation technology, the interesting thing isn’t the firsts, though, but the continuous advances ever since.
On today’s podcast, our host spoke with Randy Ayala, the director of North and South American sales for Segway by Ninebot. They discussed the drive to keep fun in functionality, the fr eedom that comes with being the one to set the curve, and how natural intuitive response helps the adoption of new forms of travel.
On this MarketScale Transportation Podcast, Sean Heath spoke with Tony Ho, VP of Global Business Development at Segway. They discussed the “ask forgiveness, instead of asking for permission” tactic that has been deployed by scooter share companies, the significant carbon footprint reduction that could be achieved by the e-scooter evolution in urban environments, and the surprising increase in interest that these programs are having on personal scooter purchases.