Superpedestrian, a transportation company that was spun out of MIT, has raised $20 million in financing to bring an ultra-safe scooter fleet to mass production.

The scooters can detect and protect against more than 100 malfunctions within nanoseconds, increasing safety for riders as well as other vehicles on the road and pedestrians. The goal is to increase safety and reduce the amount of time and money it costs to frequently repair, charge and replace vehicles.

Another reason for upping the safety measures on scooters is that local municipalities are tightening safety requirements, and operators are seeking to show a path to profitability for both personal and in-city use of scooters.

Superpedestrian has developed its own embedded computers and software to control the vehicle, including the batteries, motor, data encryption, communication and decision-making. With the ability to detect hundreds of events that can cause malfunction, the scooters can determine the right response to prevent damage to the vehicle and the rider.

Specifically, the scooter can:

• Prevent battery fires caused by short circuits in the vehicle.
• Prevent braking issues by regulating the amount of energy put into the battery while dissipating the excess into heat.
• Ensure reliability even after more than 2,500 shared rides by detecting issues that need to be resolved and automatically making itself unavailable for rental and creating a service ticket.
• Store all city rules onboard to enforce speed and parking limits in under one second.

The financing brings the total investment to $64 million.