Mobike launches urban mobility institute

Beijing Mobike Technology Co Ltd, one of the leading bike-sharing companies in China, announced the launch of China's first urban mobility open research institute on Wednesday, in a move to promote the construction of smart cities in China.

Relying on Mobike's big data and artificial intelligence platform, the research institute will be backed by 11 institutions and organizations, including the Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport, Institute for China Sustainable Urbanization, Tsinghua University, College of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University and Beijing Municipal of City Planning and Design.

Mobike Chief Technology Officer Xia Yiping said the new institute will help the company gain more strength to drive innovations on urban computing.

"We will work closely with those top think tanks and institutes, exploring innovative ways for sustainable urbanization in terms of traffic management, driving green trips, urban planning and so fort

With the support of Mobike's big data and AI platform, "Magic Cube", the company is able to integrate and analyze hundreds of factors, such as geography, time, weather and capacity, to forecast the number of needed bikes in every specific location in the future, said Yin Dafei, chief scientist at Mobike Data Group.

"The platform will offer smart guidance for bike delivery, dispatch, operation and maintenance. Then we can offer better customer services," Yin said.

Mobike has deployed more than 1 million intelligent bikes for registered users from over 150 countries. It has provided over 400 million accumulated rides since its debut in 2016, according to company figures.