Unagi Model Eleven e-scooter warns about stop signs, people in the way
Unagi's new electric scooter can tell you when you're approaching a stop sign or a giant pothole.
Unveiled Thursday at a conference called Micromobility America near San Francisco, the Model Eleven (a follow-up to the original Model One) is an e-scooter with object detection built in thanks to a camera and sensors. It also gives you audio alerts.
Unagi's new lightweight, foldable device is the latest attempt to stand out from the e-scooter pack, after the company rolled out monthly scooter subscriptions last year. For the Oakland-based company, iterating even further meant adding an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) like the ones you see on cars. In addition to noticing stop signs, if a person pops into the bike lane or a car door opens, this scooter will alert you.
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For bumpy terrain or a pothole-filled road ahead you'll also be warned.
"We’re confident saying it’s the first smart scooter," CEO David Hyman said in a phone call a few weeks before the unveiling.
While the scooter isn't autonomous, Hyman said a "longer-term vision" is to use all the information from the camera and sensor to prompt the scooter to take over and brake, or slow down, in dangerous situations. But it's not there yet.
The scooter now comes with a companion app, so you can add turn-by-turn directions that play through the scooter's audio system. That means you can safely put away your phone and not get lost.
Another "smart" feature alerts you when the scooter gets moved. If you suspect your Model Eleven has been swiped, you can turn it off via the remote kill switch in the app. Take that, scooter thieves.
On the circular display you can see info about the scooter including its charge level.
The Model Eleven will launch on crowd-sourcing site Indiegogo before deliveries start next summer. The version with an ADAS for object detection will be $2,500, while the simpler model starts at $2,100. Both come with different color options including electric yellow, a matte black, and a mint green.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
