Carpooling micromobility vehicles are commonplace in major cities around the world, whether it is a cycling program Or electric scooters. Now, a company called I see introduces electric tricycles into the mix.
Announced Tuesday at an event in Denver, the company showed off the Rover, a three-wheeled, seated electric vehicle designed for anyone to ride on the streets. They’re available in Denver for now, but Veo plans to expand the vehicle to cities across the United States.
The Rover works like a shared bike or an electric scooter. Sign up for the Veo app, pay a fee to unlock the trike, then ride it. It’s 2.5 feet wide, which means it can legally fit into bike lanes that are typically three feet wide. The tricycle has a maximum speed of 10 miles per hour. Cities tend to limit the rental speed of these types of bikes and scooters to 15 mph, but Veo chose to go with a slower speed for safety reasons. The Rover uses the same batteries as Veo’s other EV offerings, giving it a range of around 45 miles per charge; In the back is a cargo basket that can hold up to 100 pounds of luggage or groceries.
Veo is a smaller player in the micromobility space, operating in about 60 small cities in the United States. In May, the city of Denver signed an exclusive contract with Veo to replace the scooters And electric bikes manufactured by competing companies Lime And Bird. Now the sole provider of shared bikes and scooters in Denver, Veo wanted to use the city to showcase the latest addition to its micromobility collection.
Courtesy of Veo
The Rover is above all a game of accessibility, as three-wheeled vehicles tend to stand on their own and balance better than two-wheeled bikes and scooters. Municipalities sometimes ask micromobility companies to provide options for people who need more accessible vehicles. Lime has rolled out a free, accessible vehicle rental program called Lime aid which allows users in need to rent accessible vehicles for the day. Bird launched his accessible rental program in April. Veo offers similar options but wants to make these types of vehicles more widely available.
“The expectation is that your local bus or transit provider will offer accessible options for those who are in wheelchairs or unable to use certain products,” Alexander Keating, Veo’s vice president of policy and partnerships, told WIRED. “Cities that license our types of programs also expect us to do everything they can to make them accessible.
Veo says it worked with disability advocates, including the Disability Mobility Initiative, the Parkinson’s Foundation and Capitol Hill Village, to design the Rover, as well as organizations like the AARP create something that would also appeal to older users. The trike’s three-wheel design means it’s self-balancing, so people can ride on it without having to tip it over or fiddle with a kickstand.
“Our goal is to ensure that no passenger has to be treated differently in order to jump through more barriers to enter the system,” Keating says.
Courtesy of Veo
Like other Veo vehicles, the Rover is equipped with an AI-powered voice assistant that can talk to the driver during a journey to share directions, location information and traffic updates. The software also has other features such as Lidar sidewalk detection technology which aims to stop people from bombing sidewalks on their Veo scooters where they are not allowed. (Denver residents have noted that the problem didn’t really leave since Veo took over.)
The software also collects geolocation and journey details of the person in the vehicle. Keating says this information is anonymized, but the company is using this ridership data to better understand the types of trips people are using them for, as it plans to expand the tricycles to other markets.
Electric bikes are very present right awayand companies like have already built electric tricycles. Tricycles are more accessible for elderly ridersbut they can also be heavier and more difficult to steer. How these factors play out and whether more people will want to try them is what Veo wants to understand in Denver. Keating says that so far he has been surprised by the response from people who have seen the Rover.
“We want people to think it’s cool; that’s what motivates them,” says Keating. “You would think tricycles are for kids or tricycles are for older people. I think it could be for everyone. We’ll see.”