Uber is going to revolutionize the way we travel within cities

The expert search team at PatentYogi discovered a recent patent application from Uber that discloses Uber’s plan to use fully autonomous electric scooters within cities.

Electric scooters are gaining popularity throughout the world due to their ability to help reduce congestion, decrease emissions, and provide convenient, quick, and affordable transportation options, particularly within densely populated urban areas. Uber is already providing rides via electric scooters. However, there are some big issues with using electric scooters on a large scale. After usage, some riders may not park the scooter properly in an upright position. Some riders may not park them in the designated areas and some riders may park them at random places. Municipalities often place restrictions on where these scooters can be parked. Specific parking locations are designated for parking these scooters. This is important as without such restrictions it can lead to chaos in our city centers. Moreover, these scooters need to be charged periodically.

Uber has solved all such issues by inventing autonomous smart electric scooters.

Uber’s smart scooters will have multiples sensors – inertial measurement sensors (e.g., accelerometers), cameras (e.g., fisheye cameras, infrared cameras, etc.), radio beacon sensors (e.g., Bluetooth low energy sensors), GPS sensors (e.g., GPS receivers/transmitters), ultrasonic sensors, radio sensors (e.g., cellular, Wi-Fi, V2X, etc.) to sense the environment
Using these sensors, the smart scooters will determine if they are not parked in upright position. They will be able to automatically “stand up”
If they are not parked in the designated parking areas, they will locate the nearest designated parking area and automatically travel into the designated area.

When the scooter needs to be recharged, the scooter will automatically route and plug into the nearest charging station.

Uber’s smart scooters will make our city centers cleaner and safer, and also provide us a convenient and affordable transport facility.

Patent Information
Publication Number: US20210095978A1
Patent Title: Autonomous Navigation for Light Electric Vehicle Repositioning
Publication date: 2021-04-01
Filing date: 2019-09-26
Inventors: Nicholas G. Letwin, Eric Meyhofer, Sean Hyde, Michael Beckmann, Jahan Khanna, Sylvia Wu, Zoran Martinovic, Nicholas Foley, Lucie Zikova
Assignee: Uber Technologies Inc