Uber Adds Electric Scooters To Its App (cnet.com) 33
Uber is planning to partner with the bike-sharing company Lime to start renting scooters through its app. The announcement was made in Lime's new $335 million funding round. CNET reports: Uber didn't disclose how much it's investing in Lime, but Lime said it's "sizable." With Uber and Lime as strategic partners, the scooters will be co-branded and available in the Uber app. Uber launched a similar partnership with Jump bicycles in January and eventually acquired the dockless bike rental in April.
Scooters have become a controversial topic as they take over more and more cities across the U.S. As regulators hurry to write laws around the new form of transportation, lots of people say they love being able to scoot block-to-block around congested cities. Other residents complain that riders don't follow the laws of the road and endanger pedestrians by riding on sidewalks and leaving the scooters wherever they feel like it -- blocking parking spots, bike racks and wheelchair accesses. Here's what Uber's head of new modalities, Rachel Holt, had to say about the partnership: "Our investment and partnership in Lime is another step towards our vision of becoming a one stop shop for all your transportation needs. Lime already has an expansive footprint, and we're excited to incorporate their scooters into the Uber app so consumers have another fast, affordable option to get around their city, especially to and from public transit."
Scooters have become a controversial topic as they take over more and more cities across the U.S. As regulators hurry to write laws around the new form of transportation, lots of people say they love being able to scoot block-to-block around congested cities. Other residents complain that riders don't follow the laws of the road and endanger pedestrians by riding on sidewalks and leaving the scooters wherever they feel like it -- blocking parking spots, bike racks and wheelchair accesses. Here's what Uber's head of new modalities, Rachel Holt, had to say about the partnership: "Our investment and partnership in Lime is another step towards our vision of becoming a one stop shop for all your transportation needs. Lime already has an expansive footprint, and we're excited to incorporate their scooters into the Uber app so consumers have another fast, affordable option to get around their city, especially to and from public transit."
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I'm not sure where the law falls on motorized scooters, I would actually assume they fall into the bicycle category.
But enforcing laws like this (stay off the sidewalk, etc.) would be a money maker and quickly kill the service. Tickets would rapidly drive up the cost of using them, and more than pay for the enforcement if the problem is truly as bad as the headlines.
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Alternative possibility: word gets round and people start following the rules. Eventually.
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I'm not sure where the law falls on motorized scooters, I would actually assume they fall into the bicycle category.
Here's [ca.gov] what CA haws to say.
A motorized scooter is a two-wheeled device that has handlebars, a floorboard designed to be stood upon when riding, and is powered by a motor.
Motorized scooter does NOT have to be registered. A motorized scooter may be driven with any class driver license.
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In kansas a motorized scooter is less 130cc or 3.5 brake horsepower, has an automatic transmission, 3 or less wheels, with a top speed of 30mph, and requires a valid driver license of any type but must be registered and insured. Any one under 18 is required to wear a helmet and everyone is required to wear eye protection and must follow the same rules as a car or motor cycle on the road with the exception it can't be driven on the highway. These are popular for teens because you can drive it at 15 but can't
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In kansas a motorized scooter is less 130cc or 3.5 brake horsepower...
It sounds like you're talking about the Kansas definition [dmv.org] for a moped or motorized bicycle. A motorized scooter [motorizedbicyclehq.com] has the additional requirement of being under 5 horsepower, but the laws don't change so the point is moot.
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Needless to say they are already popular enough that we call them bumble bees because they swarm together and buzz down the street when school starts and finish for the day.
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I would actually assume they fall into the bicycle category.
Why? A vehicle that you have to pedal with your limbs to make it move should fall into the bicycle category. What other point would the bicycle category have?
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The motor scooters I've seen move with similar decterity and speed to a bicycle, and have similar mass.
It follows to me that they should have similar privileges and restrictions to their movement, and not be purely comingled with cars.
what about an damage waiver? uber can rent a car (Score:3)
what about an damage waiver? uber can be like the rent a car places and bill 3-4 people for the same damage.
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I had an incident like that I told the insurance company to fight them and not to give them a dime. They said it would be cheaper just to pay it and they did.
Lawless uber (Score:3)
Uber seems to think itself above the law. It's one thing to say "hey that law is bullshit". It might be. But it's not the right of a large corporation to subvert local laws just because they seem to get away from it.
Uber should sell pot from it's vehicles and set up a prostitute order service. What would be the difference? All blue laws are bullshit laws unless of course you like them.
Nuiscance laws (Score:1)
THe issue here is not so much whether uber is committing a criminal act-- perhaps the scooter rider is the one violating the law by not wearing a helmet and abandoning the scooter in a place not zoned for it. But uber is the one creating a public nuisance and profiting from it. It's the same reason we don't like abandoned buildings-- they collect squatters. Uber is a racket.
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It wouldn't be against the law here to rent a moped or a car to a licensed and insured driver. It would be against the law for them to speed, run stop lights, ride on the sidewalk, and park on the sidewalk, and the driver would be liable whether it's a car or moped.
Uber does tend to set people up to break the law but moped rentals isn't illegal though I'm sure that not everyone knows the laws regarding a moped and they aren't verifying that the people who rent are aware and follow the laws.
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I think the difficulty is dealing with deep vc-funded pockets that can afford to change the status quo fast.
The traditional business approach would be to check with the city authorities and get permission to do something like this, but tech startups have developed essentially a sociopathic ethos: they don't worry about problems they create for other people, and they certainly don't ask permission. They just roll in one night with trucks full of junk and dump it all over the place. By the time you realize
To be fair they had great tech (Score:2)
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Sharing Disaster (Score:3)
The share bike thing has been a disaster in Australia. Mostly because we are not very mature, so bikes have ended up in rivers, blocking footpaths, damaged and being such a nuisance is that councils are fining bike share companies $2500 per bike found littering public land.
It might work better in asia where there is more social responsibility, but not in OZ and probably not in the USA either.
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It doesn't help that Australia is one of the most cyclist-hostile nations, and has done just about everything it can to ensure a bike-sharing system would fail.
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People are too dishonest to share fairly.
It's always going to be the case, as it's human nature.
Look at the 1% of the world who own 99% of the wealth.
Until we can do something about that, nothing in life will ever be fair.
Accepting that is the road to happiness, and you have to walk it, not borrow someone else's bike.
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OP Here.
Yes, we have those in Brisbane and rarely see them used. Our climate is hot in summer, helmets are mandatory we have lots of hills and the bikes look like something your grandmother would only ride.
It takes a lot of infrastructure to implement and limits you to specific geographic points cf. share bikes which have no 'home' and get dumped, stolen and busted.
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Yes, we have those in Brisbane and rarely see them used. Our climate is hot in summer, helmets are mandatory we have lots of hills and the bikes look like something your grandmother would only ride.
It takes a lot of infrastructure to implement and limits you to specific geographic points cf. share bikes which have no 'home' and get dumped, stolen and busted.
Also in Brisbane - just moved back here after 4 years overseas. Signed up for CityCycle for the first time and am using it several times a week.
I am not worried by the mandatory helmets - I carry one with me when I expect to use them, but in 3 months or so I am yet to run into a situation where there aren't the freebie helmets available.
Agree with your other issues though. I am definitely not looking forward to doing it in summer. It's almost too hot to ride them now in the middle of winter! The only thing
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The share bike thing has been a disaster in Australia. Mostly because we are not very mature, so bikes have ended up in rivers, blocking footpaths, damaged and being such a nuisance is that councils are fining bike share companies $2500 per bike found littering public land.
Since this is Uber, every user will be closely tracked. It will be known precisely who abandoned a vehicle if they do so, and it's simple enough to simply fine the user for parking illegally.
Very cool (Score:1)