Google Maps API provides a complete set of development tools for WeMo Scooter. In addition to a complete set of tools, providing a familiar Google Maps UI helps us create a better experience for our customers and staff.
Jay Cheng
CTO of WeMo Scooter
Established in 2015, WeMo Scooter is the first company in Asia to provide shared rent and return anywhere electric vehicle service. Currently the largest fleet operator in Taiwan, WeMo Scooter services over 400,000 members and operates 7,000 vehicles in Taipei City, New Taipei City, and Kaohsiung City with an average of 1 Million rides per month. WeMo Scooter’s shared electric vehicle platform has matured and is now planning to expand to overseas markets, aiming to become a global industry leader.
During the early development years of the company, WeMo Scooter required a robust and detailed mapping solution to enhance their electric vehicle sharing application. After evaluating a multitude of different mapping solutions, WeMo Scooter committed to the Google Maps Platform because of their leading user friendly maps interfaces, APIs, and market familiarity resulting in minimal user onboarding time. At the same time, WeMo Scooter dedicated itself to moving all its online services onto the Google Cloud ecosystem.
WeMo Scooter’s initial implementation of Google Maps Platform did not include a unified billing and authorization system resulting in cases where they were exceeding their operating budget. WeMo Scooter proceeded to appoint Master Concept as their Google solutions consultant who not only recommended a sustainable payment plan but in recent years successfully converted WeMo Scooter to a GMP consumption model. Master Concepts assistance created a more transparent and secure billing service resulting in a budgetable billing plan.
Google Maps API plays a critical role in assisting and helping execute WeMo Scooter’s primary and operational services residing on server-side applications and back-end services. One primary use case includes a mobile app used by WeMo Scooter’s operations team and dispatch system. Google Maps API functions are essential for WeMo Scooter’s engineers and employees to run a robust and dependable service. Below are highlights of Google Maps API implementation:
Geocoding API: Coordinate and address conversion function
WeMo Scooter maintenance staff are required to find WeMo Scooter’s vehicles around the city. GPS data relayed back from the vehicles provides accurate coordinates of latitude and longitude however offers little assistance to staff looking for a vehicle. Using the Geocoding API to convert the coordinates into an “address” format makes the information much more useful to the WeMo Scooter staff aiding them in locating vehicles in the city. The Geocoding API is critical to providing efficient comprehensible information to accurately locate vehicles for WeMo Scooter’s operations.
Place API: Feedback for point of interest of surrounding locations
WeMo Scooter’s business intelligence and growth teams need to better understand regions of Taiwan when determining their service’s operating areas. Place API equips WeMo Scooter’s data team with the ability to find rich detailed data on millions of locations through automated queries. Place API provides an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of the area based on different landmarks and business listings. An area’s key metrics and characteristics can be extracted and used for data analysis enabling WeMo Scooter to make better business decisions when expanding their service areas.
Direction API: Route planning and navigation
WeMo Scooter’s customers find scooters anywhere in the city using WeMo Scooter’s mobile app. The vehicles are highlighted as pin points in WeMo Scooter’s application. To help the user get to the vehicle, the Direction API is used to return the distance between the user and the vehicle and the best walking route the user should take to get to the vehicle. In addition to WeMo Scooter’s customers, WeMo Scooter’s maintenance staff also uses the Directions API to return the best route to ride to vehicles significantly saving time and money, optimizing WeMo Scooter’s operational efficiency and thereby decreasing operating costs.
WeMo Scooter has achieved great success in electric vehicle sharing with the consultation of Master Concept and implementation of Google Maps Platform. Maintenance staff quickly find nearby vehicles with real addresses provided by the Geocoding API, while the Places API provides crucial area data for business intelligence, and the Direction API helps users and staff navigate to WeMo Scooters. Without the Google Maps Platform, WeMo Scooter would not have been able to create the user-friendly transportation service the people of Taiwan have come to rely on for their daily commuting needs.
The Geocoding API and Direction API aid WeMo Scooter’s service technicians to quickly find thousands of vehicles per day for battery replacement and vehicle maintenance providing industry leading quality and online service levels. Without these services, WeMo Scooter would not be able to handle the tens of thousands of rentals daily. Thanks to the implementation of Maps API, WeMo Scooter is able to achieve high-level operational efficiency which is key to WeMo Scooter’s profitability.
The Places API helps WeMo Scooter save hundreds of hours in gathering business intelligence. Through the Places API, WeMo Scooter’s data team has access to millions of points of interest information allowing them to determine which areas to expand its scope of operations without having to do an on-site survey. Their system requests and analyzes new districts and areas around Taiwan to determine the best locations to launch their service. Understanding the local areas WeMo Scooter operates, through the information provided by Google Maps API, is vital to making sound business decisions and planning for the future.
Google Maps API provides a complete set of development tools for WeMo Scooter. In addition to a complete set of tools, providing a familiar Google Maps UI helps us create a better experience for our customers and staff. The universal acceptance of Google Maps interface onboards our users quicker by giving them an environment they are accustomed to. Google Maps’ greatest value is its comprehensive user experience paired with its comprehensive set of developer tools.
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