Smartphone app for e-scooters is coming soon – maybe a faster model too
The Statup Unu e-scooter has been on the market since autumn 2020. What is still missing is the promised smartphone app – the manufacturer gave a time frame for this in an interview with t3n.
After a long delay, Unu launched its electric scooter, announced in May 2019, on the market in October 2020. One of the reasons for the massively delayed start of sales is the corona crisis. The app connection promised at the start, with which the smartphone becomes a scooter key, is still a long time coming. In an interview with t3n in the new Berlin flagship store, Unu founder Pascal Blum gave the prospect of an early publication.
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Unu: Developing the app is the smallest hurdle
With the first e-scooter model developed from scratch by the Berlin start-up, Unu had also announced a smartphone app. The app should be able to be used to display the battery level and the kilometers traveled, and should serve for navigation and as a key. Furthermore, the app can show the location of the scooter on a map and issue a warning if unauthorized persons tamper with it. Two years after the app was announced, Blum gave reasons for the slow development and a rough time frame for publication.
According to Blum, the delay in the development is not connected to the completion of the app by obstacles, but is due to the scooter’s operating system. Because Unu has developed its own operating system for its scooter, which will also be used for other vehicles in the long term. According to Blum, the complexity of such a system was underestimated. Among other things, reliable communication between the vehicle and smartphone was one of the hurdles, which have now apparently been largely removed.
Unu’s new electric scooter should be unlocked via smartphone in the third quarter of 2021. (Image: Unu)
According to the Unu CEO, owners of the scooter can be prepared for the fact that the smartphone app and the link will be available in the course of the third quarter. The new functions are imported as an over-the-air update so that a trip to the workshop is not necessary. In addition, Blum stated that the manufacturer continuously updates the scooter about every six weeks. They are currently working on better power management, for example.
In line with this topic: Unu electric scooter put to the test: like a sofa on two wheels
Unu thinks about faster scooters
When asked how things could continue at Unu, Blum also has a few ideas. The planned sharing platform, which was tested in pilot operation, has currently been put on hold in order to concentrate fully on the end customer business. That is why Unu has also opened a flagship store on Sophienstrasse in Berlin-Mitte, where interested parties can test drive the scooter.
For the time being, Unu has put ideas that were previously thought out loud, such as their own e-bike, as well as the sharing platform, more or less on hold, especially since the bicycle market is fiercely competitive. However, if the company were to ever introduce an e-bike, it would have to stand out from the previous solutions. The use of one’s own operating system is again conceivable.
According to Blum, a more realistic product is a faster version of the Unu scooter. A model with a top speed of 70 kilometers per hour, similar to the Niu MQi-GT, which is offered at 45 and 70 kilometers per hour, would be associated with less effort than a 125 cubic centimeter variant, which would require more effort in development. The frame of the scooter was designed for higher speeds from the start, but this was also associated with a higher safety aspect. It remains unclear when to reckon with a faster model.
