Ford’s Spin to Put Remote-Operated Scooters on American Roads This Year

That’s right, remotely-operated scooters are coming, and they’ll be available both in the U.S. and Europe by the end of the year, thanks to Ford’s Spin subsidiary.

S-200 is the name of the scooter that will seemingly move about on its own accord. It uses software from Tortoise combined with front and rear-facing built-in cameras to allow a remote operator to control it.

Spin’s scooters can be used like all other such means of transportation. Once the ride is over, if the scooter is left in a position that blocks the sidewalk, crosswalk, a handicapped space, or even at a destination from where nobody else will likely pick it for a ride, an operator links in and moves it out of the way.

According to Ford, the repositioning of the scooters will be made at speeds of up to 3 mph (4.8 kph), while balancing is not a problem, given how the S-200 is a three-wheeler.

But there’s another aspect of this capability Ford is planning to take advantage of: people will no longer have to find a scooter and go to it, but the scooter will come to the customer, as “operations staff will remotely direct any S-200 to the desired location."

“There has been a lot of fanfare around the potential of remote-controlled e-scooters, but this partnership marks a turning point in tangible operational plans to bring them to city streets,” said in a statement Ben Bear, Chief Business Officer at Spin.

“In addition to providing reliability to consumers and more order to city streets, this could significantly improve unit economics, help reduce carbon emissions and the operational work required to maintain and reposition fleets.”

The pilot test program for the S-200 will kick off in Boise, Idaho, this spring, with 300 scooters taking part. After that, other unnamed North American and European cities will follow suit.