6 ms·
I don't get it. If scooters are so great, then why doesn't everyone just buy their own? Seem much simpler than checking them in and out of special built bike ra
by bjourne 8y ago
I don't get it. If scooters are so great, then why doesn't everyone just buy their own? Seem much simpler than checking them in and out of special built bike racks.
- seattle_spring 8y agoThey're dockless.
- j9d 8y agoThis is really bad logic. This is the same thing as saying, "If cars are really that great, then why doesn't everyone buy their own? Seems much simpler than using Lyft"
- visarga 8y agoAlmost everyone does, though.
- CydeWeys 8y agoMost people where I live (Manhattan) do not own their own car. We don't all live in the suburbs. And the scooter rentals are clearly targeting cities, not suburbs.
- alasdair_ 8y ago>Almost everyone does, though. Not in London (or, indeed, much of the UK). Not in Manhattan. Not any city where parking can take 20 minutes to find and costs $30+ a day.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago17 million cars a year are still sold in the US, so clearly ridesharing isn’t preferred that much more over vehicle ownership (perhaps if you’re in a city and without kids). Having two kids, I couldn’t imagine dragging two car seats with us Lyft to Lyft. Rather just own the car.
- TomK32 8y agoNo ridesharing either if no one buys cars.
- microdrum 8y agoYou are being downvoted bc the analogy is bad. Owning a m365 scooter provides 95% of the lime experience. Owning a car provides, like 10% to 50% of the Lyft experience, depending on many personal/geo variables.
- adamnemecek 8y agoSame as cars and Uber. You dont need to take care of them, you don't need to take them with you when you travel. Renting a high end scooter a couple of times might make more sense than buying a cheap one.
- m_ke 8y agoA car is a >=$500/month headache. The "high end" scooters cost $300-500 and are small enough to fit in your closet. Anyone who plans on using one regularly will be better off buying one. Lyft/Uber cars are reliable and guaranteed to come to your door in 5-10 minutes. With these scooters you have to hope that there's one around and walk a few blocks to pick it up.
- adamnemecek 8y agoYou might be with a group of people. There are places that won't let me bring the scooter in, etc etc.
- m_ke 8y agoSo they're competing with Uber/Lyft for the short random trips that you might occasionally take at almost the same price. In NYC people use citi bikes for their daily commute because most of us don't have space for a bike and locking one on the street is a bad idea. I see people with regular scooters, skateboards and boosted boards at coffee shops and on the subway all the time so an electric scooter shouldn't be that big of an issue.
- adamnemecek 8y agoIt's for anyone who needs to go somewhere 0.7 miles away but doesn't want to walk or get an Uber. It's not whether it would be an issue or not, it's whether I want to carry it around.
- ghaff 8y ago
- jonknee 8y agoConvenience of course. Coffee is easy and cheap to make, but millions of people pay for coffee every day. Lunch is easy to make, but again, millions of people outsource that to someone who specializes in making lunch. Not owning something is one less thing to worry about--no securing it, no charging it, no maintaining it, no buying it. Sign me up.
- majormajor 8y agoThen I have to deal with theft in the same way I would with a personal bike. And it's nice that these don't have docks. Tired of them on the sidewalk? You could mark off a parking spot every block or so and have room for a ton of scooters to park at the cost of just one car parking spot. Making it communal is a potential opportunity to sidestep all that. (Though some places have still seen people screwing with the system.)
- gkoberger 8y agoMost scooters don't have docks. It takes you 10 seconds to unlock it, and you just get off and walk away anywhere when you're done. Renting means you don't have to bring it into a restaurant, figure out what to do with it when you're drunk, walk when you left it at the office the night before, etc.
- bjourne 8y agoYou just leave them in the streets when you're done riding? How can you prevent theft?
- gkoberger 8y agoThey "lock" automatically, and beep when you try to move them. They're also GPS tagged. I imagine the theory is that the parts aren't worth enough to really be stolen (and unless you modify them, they can't be used without the app). And of course, theft is worked into their business model.
- tlrobinson 8y agoIf you use it to commute the same route every day then it makes sense to have your own, but if you’re using them for occasional trips around town then maybe not. Now, if someone made a motorized version of those shoes with wheels in the heels...
- stingrae 8y ago1. Convenience/Security: You don't have to deal with locking it up somewhere or carrying it into an office. You don't need to worry about it getting stolen. 2. Charging: You don't have to charge it/worry about it running out of power.
- asaph 8y agoAfter trying a Bird scooter once and really enjoying the experience, I came to a similar conclusion. I bought the same model electric scooter that Bird uses for around ~$500 and I've been commuting to work with it for the past couple of weeks. I love it. It's such a fun way to get around. I imagine there are others like me, who might have become regular Bird customers if owning the scooter wasn't this affordable.
- microdrum 8y agoIf you think buying a m365 for $500 is attractive, wait till Xaiomi will sell you one for $300, the actual price, when bird isn't pushing up Long Beach port imported scooters with its vc money!
- carapace 8y agoYou're paying for the service of being able to leave your scooter in public somewhere and have someone else collect and recharge it. That's the service: these companies are selling the time of economically marginal collector/recharger folks.