Technology Able to Detect Objects in Real Time to Optimize Rider Safety
Hello Llama, an Atlanta-based AI technology company, launches globally today with the release of Llama Vision – the Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) for Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs). This technology creates a safer environment for riders and communities, provides real time information for operators, and enables a platform for sharing those results with municipalities. Hello Llama is led by David Touwsma whose experience includes leading one of the top five micro-mobility companies in the world that built and deployed bikes, scooters, and other LEVs for public use. Also co-founding the business is computer vision, artificial intelligence, and battery technology experts, Arun Gunasekaran and Bryan Ovalle, who are leveraging their innovation experience from their time at Tesla and SpaceX, respectively. Hello Llama chose the e Mobility Experience at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to introduce and demonstrate their technology to the market.
“Our mission is to create the safe co-existence of LEVs within communities”, said Touwsma. “By collaborating with multiple partners in the shared mobility and delivery space, Llama’s goal of providing customized AI hardware and software solutions will allow the operators and cities to improve on last mile technology and create a safer environment.”
With a 79% spike in mobility related accidents with nearly 200,000 emergency room visits over the last three years, Hello Llama’s cutting-edge technology provides a safety solution to mobility companies, delivery fleet operators, and their riders that can detect and respond in real-time to objects and infrastructure – pedestrians, sidewalks, bike lanes, pavement, potholes, etc. Incorporating the use of AI, computer vision, and machine learning, Llama Vision enables operators to select what objects and infrastructure they would like their system to recognize and configure reactions such as slowing down or alarming the rider. As cities begin to legislate safety compliance and insurers set new rates and requirements, the micro-mobility and delivery fleet operators need Hello Llama’s customized solutions to improve user behavior, increase rider satisfaction, and create safer communities.
Hello Llama’s leadership and engineering team saw a void in the market and opportunity to bring products to life that are not only affordable to operators but easily integrated and implemented with the features they need. “Technology has changed rapidly over the past 12 months allowing our engineering team to optimize faster than our competition and bring to market a far superior product at a price that will allow our customers to run profitable businesses,” said Arun Gunasekaran, Hello Llama’s CTO.
Gunasekaran adds, “Computer vision is about much more than just sidewalk detection and parking enforcement. The Hello Llama team is excited to continue to announce new, proprietary features in the coming weeks that will change this industry. By introducing Tesla-like innovation to light electric vehicles, we’ve created a safety halo to not just protect riders, but the surrounding environments and communities in which they travel.”
At launch, Hello Llama has secured key partnerships in the Shared Mobility and Delivery space. In a market that has seen over 36 million new shared bikes, scooters, and mopeds on the road, Hello Llama’s technology is small, agile, and cost-effective for operators. The company’s hardware can be fully integrated at the design and production phase, but is also hardware agnostic, allowing it to be retrofitted on current assets already deployed to deliver safe, profitable, and highly functional systems.
EFO Ventures, Hello Llama’s seed investor and incubator, works directly with companies in the mobility, sustainability, and tech-enabled services industries, investing both financially and through dedicated development and support. This newest launch comes on the heels of the company’s launch of MIXTE (www.exploremixte.com), a direct-to-consumer e-bike in the United States.
For more information on Hello Llama and its technology, visit www.hellollama.ai.
For more such updates and perspectives around Digital Innovation, IoT, Data Infrastructure, AI & Cybersecurity, go to AI-Techpark.com.
