Last week Voi added e-bikes to some of its hire schemes. This week it’s released a new version of its e-scooter. The Swedish micro-mobility company describes the Voiager 4 as ‘pollution-fighting’ thanks to the addition of air quality sensors and there are a few new safety features as well.
“As we continue to strengthen our market position in the UK, we are thrilled to bring the Voiager 4 to our partner cities and growing customer base,” commented Voi’s UK, Ireland and Benelux manager, Richard Corbett.
“We know that our communities require greener, convenient transport to replace shorter-distance car trips and reduce congestion. The new features, designed in-house, will bring superlative overall performance in safety, efficiency, and sustainability to help our communities meet their transportation needs.”
Voi was last year trialling technology that would help e-scooters ‘sense’ pedestrians and recognise pavements. That stuff’s maybe for a future incarnation – but they’ve still made some fairly significant tweaks.
Perhaps most strikingly, the Voiager 4 can measure air quality and noise levels as it travels through urban areas and then share that data with councils (if they’re interested).
That may not result in great swathes of data just yet with just a handful of e-scooter trials underway in the UK, but it’s an interesting thing to have in place as the schemes expand.
The new scooter has also been given an “audible alert system” (A horn? A bell?) to warn pedestrians that you’re coming, plus indicators that are said to be visible through 360 degrees.
In terms of riding, they’ve bumped up the motor and the new one is said to give 35% improved performance when going uphill. The suspension has also been improved and is supplemented with higher-quality tyres.
There are a few software tweaks as well.
The Voiager can now be unlocked via contactless near field communication technology, using a smartphone, smart watch, or transport card and it will also run routine diagnostic checks automatically.
Voi says the scooter’s capable of identifying 55 unique error conditions. If triggered, these will alert the operations team and render the scooter unavailable for hire.
Voi will introduce the V4 to select UK markets this spring, with broader rollout later in the year.
