Wired has an article on scooter company Spin working with Virginia Tech to understand the use of scooters.

It’s also an 18-month research project. Of the 300 scooters that Spin will drop upon the 4-square-mile campus next week, 50 will be wired with sensors—gyroscopes, accelerometers, and forward-facing cameras—designed to record very specific data about how the two-wheeled vehicles are moving through space. At least 20 cameras will also stud the campus, to observe scooter riders in their natural habitat.

Ford could be a player in mobile electric transportation. The data they get could enable addressing many other issues in transportation and other services.

Ford has had previous success with scooter-based research. In the fall of 2018, the automaker’s mobility division quietly launched a scooter service on the campus of Purdue University in Indiana. The research there convinced Ford that scooters were viable from a business perspective, says Sweeney—helping justify its purchase of Spin, for a reported $100 million. With more questions to answer, the automaker turned scooter operator is heading back to school.