Why?
In Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, golf course owners and golf players are often frustrated: golfers find no golf carts to take, and country clubs sigh at wasted inventory, i.e. tee time. This is because in those places, professional drivers—caddies—are mandatory, but they are increasingly in short supply.
Caddies are experienced drivers. They make sure there is no reckless driving by golfers themselves. That is why they seem indispensable; nobody would play golf without them.
Now such gridlock and deadweight loss should be over. Golfers and country clubs are saved by smart golf carts. With assistive driving technologies, even 1st-time golfers can navigate through the course safely. Everybody can rent a golf cart and play whenever he/she likes.
What?
Turing Now is a smart golf cart solution. It allows golf course owners to operate an innovative mobility service that
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Increases available tee time and its turnover rate
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Allows for off-peak sales that was previously limited by caddy shortage
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Reduces direct and indirect cost of hiring and managing caddies
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Prevents damage to assets like bush and green by reckless amateur drivers
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Ensure privacy for golfers
The golf carts are smart by themselves. There is no need for magnetic rail beneath the ground. Most operational parameters, including geofence, authentication, and warning signals are configurable.
How?
Turing Now employes a set of assistive driving technolgies developed on autonomous vehicle projects.
Collision Avoidance
As soon as the system predicts a collision with pedestrian or vehicle in the front, an alarm will be sent out and the cart will be drastically slowed down. That offers enough safety for passengers.
Driveway Departure Avoidance
Driveway departure warning sounds like the lane departure warning on automobile, but it’s not. First, there is no lane markings at golf course, so our proprietary AI model recognizes driveway boundaries and distinguishes pebble/dirt/pavement from grass/bush/whatever.
And whenever the driver deviates from the driveway, the cart will slow down to the unbearably low speed below 4km/h until the cart is back on track, with an alarm beeping and warning sign displayed on board.
Geofenced Entry Warning and Intervention
If you are getting close to a high-risk area (or a place of interest), a visual and audio notice will be played out before you enter the zone and until you leave there. If the place happens to be a restricted area and you keep pushing forward, the cart will be slowed down to 4km/h. These warnings are not rocket science, but they do help manage driving behavior at a micro level.
Self-Service and Authentication
Geofenced self-check-in/out is a must for automated mobility services like smart golf cart. Thanks to precise positioning, golfers can access and return the vehicles following an authentication process, e.g. scanning QR code, only in certain places.
This allows golf course operators to ensure smooth and safe flow on the site. For instance, they can designate a service area beside the clubhouse, but not in front of the main entrance. Coupled with restricted warning, the smart golf cart effectively prevents players from goofing around.
Event Data Recorder, Fleet Management, and Behavior Analysis
What’s more, front camera snapshots will be taken upon the warning and uploaded to the fleet management system. Golf course manager, or any mobility service operator, can learn about the driver’s behavior on the spot—with time and location stamps.
In addition to common fleet management features like real-time vehicle position and rental status, many more types of driving data, e.g. warnings triggered, are also stored and can be analyzed to identify high-risk drivers and improve user experience.
Who
Turing Now solution is made for country clubs and golf course owners/operators.
We also work with business partners in different contries and regions, such as golf experience App devleopers, navigation App providers, and low-speed vehicle manufacturers.
When and Where
Turing Now has been in operation at selective golf courses in central Taiwan since late 2021. Other operations will be announced with other regional business partners.
Variations of Turing Now is also under development and will be deployed to other types of confined area outside golf courses.
Source:
Smart Golf Cart enables innovative mobility service for country clubs