Tokio Marine and Luup Agree on Partnership to Improve Safety of E-Scooters

Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and Group CEO: Satoru Komiya; hereinafter “Tokio Marine”) and Luup, Inc. (Head office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Daiki Okai; hereinafter “Luup”), which operates “LUUP,” a sharing service of electric micromobility including e-scooters and e-bikes, have entered into a capital and business alliance. Tokio Marine and Luup will work together to improve the safety of e-scooters.

Background and Purpose

E-scooters are a new mobility that began to spread around globally in 2017. Since e-scooters are electric and compact, they are attracting attention for their ability to significantly reduce CO2 emissions associated with transportation compared to regular cars, and also the spread of coronavirus has accelerated their use as a means of transportation to avoid crowdedness.

Since e-scooters are a new mobility for the world, each country is searching for appropriate riding rules, and regulations are being established to suit the environment of the public roads in that country. In Japan, e-scooters fall under the category of motorized bicycles, but demonstration experiments are underway to establish rules for safer riding.

In today’s increasingly complex society, Tokio Marine Group provides insurance and highly specialized risk solutions for various risks found in society. Tokio Marine Group is developing new services by conducting various data-based experiments in the areas of smart cities and Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which have been attracting attention in recent years. 

Luup provides a sharing service for electric, compact, and single-passenger micromobility with the mission to “create an infrastructure that makes the entire city ‘a station front.’” Luup offers not only e-bikes and e-scooters, but also electric, compact, and single-seat micromobility services, aiming for a future in which all people can move freely. Against this backdrop, Luup has launched an e-scooter sharing service in Tokyo and Osaka as a demonstration experiment. Since its launch, the service has covered a total distance of more than 300,000km, making Luup the operator with the most e-scooters traveled by any operator in Japan.

Major Initiatives

In this capital and business alliance, Tokio Marine and Luup will start collaboration to improve the safety and social acceptance of e-scooters, with the aim of creating a safe and secure micromobility usage environment.

1.Research on new services for micromobility using driving data and more
Tokio Marine and Luup will work together to study new services for micromobility. We will study services that contribute to improving the social acceptance of e-scooters and how to provide appropriate compensation, while taking into account the appropriate traffic rules considered by the Japanese government and the perspective of victim relief. In the future, we will also conduct research on new products and services utilizing the driving data.

2.Improving the safety of e-scooters
While e-scooters are easy-to-use mobility vehicles, we face violations by some of our users. . Through numerous demonstration experiments, Luup has accumulated the knowledge to provide e-scooters as a safe and secure sharing service, and now, with the participation of Tokio Marine, whose mission is to provide safety and security, we aim to further enhance safety and social acceptance. Specifically, after conducting a comprehensive risk assessment of all e-scooters, including Luup’s vehicles, we will jointly study ways to improve user communication to reduce dangerous driving on LUUP and also develop safer vehicles.

Outlook for the Future

Tokio Marine and Luup will work together to promote sustainable means of transportation between the first and last mile through the safe and secure use of these micromobility vehicles.

About Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc.
– Location: 2-6-4 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
– Representative: Satoru Komiya
– Founded: April 2002
– URL: https://www.tokiomarinehd.com/