E-scooter company in talks with Cork City Council over share scheme 

Jean Andrews, Superpedestrian’s policy director for Ireland and UK, said Cork could receive a fleet of 600 high-tech micro-mobility vehicles.

The rollout of shared scooters could form part of a €15m investment in Ireland by the company, with 10,000 e-scooters overall distributed across 22 Irish towns and cities.

The scooters have a network of sensors, microprocessors and AI that runs 1,000 vehicle health checks every second during a ride.

The system can then modify performance to avoid component failures, such as battery fires, notify operations teams immediately if it is not upright and remove itself from service if it detects any one of 140 safety-critical conditions, including issues with electronics, battery, motor and brakes.

E-scooters are used widely in other European countries as a mode of transport, though it is not currently legal to use e-scooters in Ireland.

In February, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan announced the Government-approved draft legislation, which will allow for the regulation of escooters and ebikes in the forthcoming Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill.

Under the proposed law, a new vehicle category which will be known as ‘Powered Personal Transporters’ (PPTs) will be created and will include e-scooters and similar devices.

Tax, insurance, and driving licences will not be required for the vehicles.

Recent research conducted by Connolly hospital found more than half of people injured in e-scooter accidents were not wearing helmets.

The research, the first of its kind in Ireland, found injuries sustained from e-scooters were severe and complex, frequently resulting in surgery.

Researchers found 73% of the patients were male and just over half of all patients did not have a full driving licence.

Most patients were in their late 30s and early 40s and were using the vehicles to commute to work.