# Where's my Voi scooter: [1] Starting my journey

Somebody used the Voi scooter parked in front of my place, I want to know where it is now.

## Background

I got into using Voi scooter recently. It is a scooter hiring service where you can use scooters parked on the street. To use the same scooter and go out again the next day, I usually park my scooter outside my place. However, it keeps being taken by someone else. While it is allowed, I find it annoying to have to find a scooter elsewhere. Therefore I decided to make a program to find where did the scooter go.

## How I researched this topic

### Finding an API (Application Programming Interface)

Voi scooters' locations are public. Every single scooter's location is shown on the map when you open the Voi app. Hence I decided to find out if there is an API for that so I don't have to fetch the data manually. I googled "Voi API", and it took me to a [documentation site](https://docs.voiscooters.com/) for Voi where I found a webpage [Mass light](https://docs.voiscooters.com/maas-light/) that contains information about an MDS and GBFS V1,2 API.

### Searching for related projects

I decided to stop and see if anyone has done anything similar before, so I don't reinvent the wheel (although that would still be a learning journey). Luckily, I found [an article](https://medium.com/@h_martos/remote-live-tracking-of-voi-scooters-351689ba3bb9) where Héctor Martos shared how he tracked a Voi scooter's journey. He found the API by using a proxy and the Voi app, then repeatedly fetched data from it. Unfortunately, he didn't include what the API is and how to use it. 

I also did some further research but found no other useful information, therefore this is all I had.

### Going back to Voi documentation

Going back to Mass Light. I need to authenticate myself with a `bearer token` in order to query their MDS data. But I didn't know how to get one, I didn't even know what MDS is, it turns out MDS is Mobility Data Specification, by [Open Mobility Foundation](https://www.openmobilityfoundation.org/). It hopes to use location data of vehicles to help make better decisions. I searched their website and there is no information on how to access the data. So I went back to Mass Light, I saw this code snippet to get an access token:
```bash
$ curl -X POST -u user:password
  -d grant_type=client_credentials
  -H "Content-Type:application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
  mds.voiapp.io/token
```
So I tried it. It didn't work because I need a username and password, which I don't have. So I figured this API is not for normal users. It would have been helpful if they stated this from the start.

### Found a Github page on using the Voi API

I went back to find related information, and that is when I stumbled upon this [Github page](https://github.com/ubahnverleih/WoBike/blob/master/Voi.md), where Constantin 
 left a tutorial on how to query the Voi API.

So I made a python script following the instruction:
```python
import requests
url = "http://api.voiapp.io/v1/auth/verify/phone"
# fake country code and phone number
obj = {"country_code": "AB",
       "phone_number": "0123123123"}
re = requests.post(url, json=obj)
print(re.text)
print(re)
```
However, I got an `<Response [405]>`, and it is until later that I found out I had to use `https` instead of `http`, another thing that I learned is that the country code for the UK is `GB`.

After fixing that, I was able to get a response and an SMS verification code, I then followed the steps on the page and successfully verified myself. I did skip the `Get first authToken` step, I think because I already registered with Voi with my phone number. I know because later when I tried to use the Voi App, I had to authenticate again, so I will need another number to continue this project if I still want to ride Voi with my phone number.

### Finding out the zones code

Voi scooters serve [76 cites](https://www.voiscooters.com/blog/end-of-year-2021/#:~:text=This%20year%2C%20Voi%20surpassed%2090,working%20at%20Voi%20across%20Europe.). It would be impossible that they tell you where every single scooter is, therefore I have to first get the zones code for my city before I can start asking the API where the scooters are.

```python
url = "https://api.voiapp.io/v1/zones"
re = requests.get(url, headers={"x-access-token": accessToken})
print(re.text)
print(re)
```

This gave me a huge JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) object, but with the power of `control+f`, I quickly found the zones code for my city and can start querying the location of scooters.

### Making my first vehicle location request

I then made my first request

```python
url = f"https://api.voiapp.io/v2/rides/vehicles?zone_id={my_zone_id}"
re = requests.get(url, headers={"x-access-token": accessToken})
print(re.text)
print(re)
```

It again gave me a huge JSON object, with the format being:


![pycharm64_DGXoOesX0z.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1653922154386/_x5Z4ooC2.png align="left")

Here we can see each scooter has an ID, and location in terms of longitude and latitude. The scooters here seem to be the ones parked.

## What I plan to do in the future

With these data, I plan to find a way to repeatedly query and record the vehicle location data so that I can further analyse them over time.

I also plan to see if it is possible to track the live location data of the scooters, as done in [Héctor Martos's article](https://medium.com/@h_martos/remote-live-tracking-of-voi-scooters-351689ba3bb9).