A.I. Revolution coming to Niagara in full-force

For Immediate Release by Nick Redekop

Health crises, economic woes and the threat of global conflict seem to be dominating the 2020s. While these challenges are immediate and far-reaching, the opportunities of the future are also immense. Niagara resident Grant Furlane is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of LocoMobi World, an artificial intelligence company that is seeking to apply cutting-edge technology in order to solve the largest problems facing modern cities.        

 “We’ve got tech, both hardware and software, that very few people even know exists,” Furlane shared in a recent interview with The Niagara Independent. “We plan to use these tools to improve efficiency, service delivery, and really, every aspect of daily life!” 

 One of the key aspects of Furlane’s vision is to tackle the toughest transportation issues of our day through A.I. parking management and automated parking enforcement for commercial buildings, condominiums,  and businesses. “Think about the community of Niagara-on-the-Lake, for example,” Grant presented. “Six months of the year it’s a small town… the other six months of the year it’s a big city!” he continued. “Tourist hot-spots have huge problems with congestion, parking… particularly ensuring that the infrastructure benefits local merchants.” “My ultimate goal is to provide robots that can facilitate the management of the parking system.” 

As the transition to the A.I. economy picks up speed, LocoMobi already has a full complement of instruments, both in terms of hardware and software, to enhance transportation logistics and operations. “We have computer vision cameras, car recognition, payment kiosks and mobile apps to meet our client’s needs,” Furlane explained. “The adaptation process will undoubtedly take place in stages, and we’re ready to work with cities to make it all happen!” 

In realizing his objective, however, Furlane is adamant about two things: respecting human experience as well as privacy concerns. “I don’t believe in creating robots that look like humans,” he shared. “That’s just creepy… I can’t control if someone else wants to do that, but that’s not something you’ll ever see from LocoMobi, ” he further explained. “Think R2-D2 from Star Wars… there might be some variation in size, but that’s basically what our robots will look like.” 

“Another fundamental thing for me is privacy,” Furlane shared. “If one of our robots takes a picture of a license plate, it will know the car if it sees it anywhere… but it will absolutely not know anything about the owner, who she/he is, her/his personal information, or anything like that,” he expounded. “It is extremely important to me that while utilizing technology to vastly improve the experience of individuals, businesses and service delivery in modern cities, we provide the utmost respect for people’s privacy.” “And every one of our employees feels the same way.” 

 Utilizing similar technology, Furlane hopes to radically advance the experience of EV vehicles. “Consider a walletless trip, and even a shopping experience,” he envisioned. “Imagine pulling up to a McDonalds, putting in your order, and the car paying for your order utilizing the payment information you have entered into its computer system,” he continued. “The same could be said for a place where you are required to show I.D.,””The day will soon be here where all of this is possible… touchless and easy!”    

While LocoMobi’s manufacturing operations have primarily taken place in China, he has recently decided to bring 100% production home to Canada. “The idea behind this move is two fold,” he shared. “First of all, I absolutely love this country, I am an extraordinarily proud Canadian, and I just think this is an amazing place to live and do business,” he explained. “Secondly, while I personally have experienced no particular issues conducting operations in China, all of these geopolitical problems overseas are clearly mounting… and it is a deep concern: if some of these scary threats manifest, what would happen to my hardware?” “All things considered, setting up shop right here in Canada is not only incredibly exciting, but it also makes sense.”           

When LocoMobi operations transition to Canada in the coming months/years, their production facility will be located in Niagara. “I truly believe in this community,” Furlane said. “It is a mature community, and it is ready for this kind of big advancement,” he continued. “And we’re going to be partnering with students from the colleges and universities in the area, giving them opportunities to be part of production, gaining hands-on experience with the technology.”        

With the years ahead promising to be exhilarating, Furlane says that the toughest part may be waiting for innovation to catch-up. “I’ve many times developed technology that’s been way ahead of schedule,” Furlane shared. “And that’s great, but the problem is that, in a lot of instances, you then have to wait for the infrastructure needed to support that tech to also be available,” he explained.          

“At the end of the day, I think that A.I. is going to transform the way we do everything… just like personal computing, the internet and mobile devices did… we’re at the dawn of another  electrifying era!” 

Those interested in learning more about LocoMobi World can do so by visiting their website.