Japan's Terra Motors to make map-making electric scooter with iPhone connection
In terms of maps and location services, we all have it pretty good, with the ability to find ourselves as long as there’s a mobile signal. But less mapped areas such as South East Asia, don’t have such easy access to good mapping services.
That’s why Terra Motors have developed their newest scooter, the A4000i, which includes an iPhone connection for data collection. The scooter is being marketed as a way of collecting locational data, which presumably will then be sold onto mapping partners to improve the cartography of the region.
“Analyzing the location information of users”, the A4000i press release reads, “new services such as personalized advertisement will be possible.”
In terms of pure scooter performance, the A4000i also has very good mileage and battery performance, eking out 50,000km from a single charge – five times longer than the average for electric scooters in China.
There’s been no release date yet for the scooter to launch over seas, with Terra Motor’s main aim being to put 100,000 units in Asian markets before 2015. But when it does, the price point will be expected to be around $4,500 (around £2970).
