14 ms·
Uber Will Rent Scooters Through Its App in Partnership with Lime
- tapatio 8y agoWell, that's going to kill Bird.
- ThomPete 8y agoWe will see. Been "workating" with my family in LA for a few weeks and we ended up using Bird much more especially because it looks like Lime require you to pay in bundles (10usd) and there are just way more Birds available than Limes. It might change now that Uber is involved but they would have to increase their scooters fleet quite a lot I think. Been interesting because in New York Bird isn't something people talk about where as here it was everywhere (didn't hurt we lived at Venice beach either). One thing I realized is how much the ability to just leave your bird/lime anywhere and just pick it up where it is, affects your desire to use it. We will see the same uptick in bicycles in NY I think once you are not required to park them at specific places. It's a little bit of a mess though especially down on the beach promenae but I think there are plenty of ways to encourage good behavior.
- tomjen3 8y agoYou should be able to get mostly the same benefit if there was plenty of places to park them. I could theoretically rent a bicycle, but there are only four places I could park it.
- ageitgey 8y agoWhere I live (San Diego), Lime and Bird have swapped places a couple of times for who has the most scooters on the street. They are both being really aggressive in increasing the number of units. It's not uncommon to see 10 of each lined up on a sidewalk. It's also been fun to watch both companies experiment and revise their hardware. The original Lime scooters were slow and the Bird scooters were much stronger. With the v2 of each, it is reversed. But from what I've heard second hand, increasing the number of units on the street isn't that expensive. I've heard that the units cost them in bulk ~$250 each and they quickly (< 3 months) earn that back. So the investment to blanket a city with scooters is way less than you'd expect and not the main barrier to entry. Of course that's second hand, so I could be totally wrong.
- kylehotchkiss 8y agoI love riding them at mission beach! I was sort of sad about the version 2. It had a speedometer but only would go 10mph, and the brake was so weird. The version 1s are much better.
- ThomPete 8y agoAgressive is the right word I think Bird has the former Uber head of growth.
- jczhang 8y agoLime doesn't require you to pay in bundles. There have been some days where I've seen more Limes around than Birds.
- xur17 8y agoIt required me to after my second ride. I went to rent another scooter, and it forced me to load a balance onto my account first. I would have just switched to Bird at that point, but there were no scooters nearby.
- enroxorz 8y agoI doubt it. The market is diverse enough to enjoy both products. I like Bird (in San Antonio) and hope that it either gets acquired by Lyft or becomes strong independently.
- kylec 8y agoHaving tried both Bird and Lime in San Jose, I definitely prefer Bird. Both the Bird app and the scooter itself provide a better user experience than the Lime app/scooter, plus there were way more of them around. I feel like Uber backed the wrong horse here.
- gringoDan 8y agoOnce again a successful prediction from Ben Thompson.
- fwdpropaganda 8y agoLink please.
- gringoDan 8y agohttps://stratechery.com/2018/the-scooter-economy/ https://stratechery.com/2018/the-scooter-economy/ HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17284094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17284094
- arcaster 8y agoScooters are ruining Austin. Fuck The Scooters!
- gaahrdner 8y agoNo they aren't, they're probably saving downtown Austin's transportation woes. Decades of failed resolutions by the city council to provide expanded public transportations for an extremely high growth city have brought us to this point, one where the market had to come up with a solution. I'd imagine more regulations are probably due in the near future.
- windows_tips 8y agoIt is typical that a market will produce a solution before a government, isn't it?
- Finnucane 8y agoYes, but only for people who can afford it.
- windows_tips 8y agoThere are often programs to make market goods available to those who may not be able to. Fresh produce, for example. I haven't seen any governments producing the oldest and most critical good.
- hobbyjogger 8y agoThe scooters definitely aren't "ruining Austin" but they're not "saving" it from transportation woes either. The percentage of drivers who live close enough to downtown to hop on a scooter instead of taking car is pretty small. For example, only 4% of Austin commuters live within 2 miles of their workplace [0]. Commuters in Westlake and P-Ville, etc. are definitely NOT trading in their cars to get on a scooter (if you could even find one) and then riding it down the highway for 30 minutes. Especially in 100 degree heat. [0] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8eBZN5uyROoJ:www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/bhat/REPORTS/Austin_commuter_survey_report.doc+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8eBZN5u...
- tweedledee 8y agoWhy not keep the scooters in the cars. Grab one on the way out, leave it behind when you get home. Request an uber with a scooter in it. There will have to be some leveling between cars but that’s surely easier than blanketing the city.
- r00fus 8y agoWhy would I need a scooter when the uber takes me door to door. Mass transit would benefit better from a scooter partnership.
- tweedledee 8y agoFor carpooling where you’d normally walk the final portion. Also for multiple destinations with short hops between them.
- usaar333 8y agoNot sure exactly what you are thinking, but I do think empowering Uber drivers to relocate scooters to high demand areas (where the driver tends to also go) would make a lot of sense.
- strig 8y agoThe cars could charge the scooters as well.
- kevinmgranger 8y agoI think docked bike shares had the following problems: - they were spaced too far apart - they weren't in residential areas The dockless bikes, and scooters, were a response to that. We could go back to using docks if we solved those two problems. Or what if there was a hybrid approach, incentivising users who brought their bike / scooter to a dock by making the ride cheaper or free?
- sloanesturz 8y agoWe have a hybrid approach like this in San Francisco - it's called Scoot and it is like an electric Vespa, not a push scooter or a pedal-assist bike. You drive it in traffic lanes like a car or motorcycle. You can park them on the street in a regular parking spot (in most neighborhoods), or park them in a garage charging spot and get $1 off your ride. If you return a sidewalk-parked Scoot that is almost out of power, then your ride is free. It works pretty well and the pricing seems pretty fair.
- ProAm 8y agoIt sort of looks like litter when I see all the bikes and scooters just left on sidewalks all over town.
- znull 8y agoJust the bikes and scooters? Not, say, the idle cars left on streets all over town?
- edaemon 8y agoCars are at least parked in designated spots/areas. Dockless bikes and scooters don't have a designated space to park in; they have to be left on the sidewalk, and they can be dropped anywhere.
- xur17 8y agoIt wouldn't be too difficult for cities to create designated 'parking spots' for scooters. Or require that they must be next to a bike rack. The apps all require you to take a picture of the scooter after parking, so it would be pretty easy to verify if someone moved it after the fact.
- edaemon 8y agoThat wouldn't be too difficult, and I think some cities have done that. The problem is that it's difficult to enforce and there isn't much incentive to try; are they going to give out tickets for poor scooter parking? Who would they ticket? Bird/Lime, the user, or the unknown person who moved it afterwards? I think docking stations are the better solution. Portland has docked shared bikes and they work well. It prevents the littering problem almost entirely, and it could provide a way to keep these scooters charged.
- xur17 8y agoYou're right that it would be hard to figure out the exact mechanics of the enforcement, but I think it can be done. > I think docking stations are the better solution. Portland has docked shared bikes and they work well. It prevents the littering problem almost entirely, and it could provide a way to keep these scooters charged. I strongly disagree. Docked bikes have been around for a while in most cities, and scooters have been a lot more popular because they are everywhere. If I use a docked bike to go 2 miles I'll spend half my time on either end walking to and from a dock. The only way to make the docked model work is to have many small docks - several on every block, which isn't going to happen. My suggestion is essentially this (multiple docks on every block) without the need for infrastructure. Cars (which are way less space efficient) have more parking options that docked bikes, which makes 0 sense.
- probe 8y agoThis partnership could also allow Uber driver partners to basically have another source of income - rebalancing the scooter/bike network and helping with charging (ex. someone drives for Uber Eats, drops off a scooter at pickup restaurant to charge). Current Lime freelance chargers are making ~$1400 earnings per month[1] so this could start being substantial and help the growth for both companies [1] https://www.axios.com/how-lime-is-pitching-its-bike-a-1529492063-f32aac78-caf6-4455-a7f1-215cc4bf4552.html https://www.axios.com/how-lime-is-pitching-its-bike-a-152949...
- wpietri 8y agoThat $1400/month number strikes me as dubious. They mention the charger earns $30-50/day. Assuming a standard 22-day work month, $1400 would have to be $63/day. A more realistic number seems to be $40 * 22 days, or $880/month. Which is not a lot of money in the expensive cities Lime is active in.
- jonlucc 8y agoThey were active in at least one Midwest city (Indianapolis) until last week, so $880 might not be a full-time job there, but would be a very nice supplementary income.
- wpietri 8y agoI cannot imagine a VC-funded gig-economy company failing to notice that if they can pay people $x in SF, they can probably pay people $0.3x to $0.5x in Indianapolis. [1] [1] https://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/indianapolis-in/san-francisco-ca/100000 https://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/indianapolis-in/sa...
- cheeze 8y agoMan... $880 a month to drive around Seattle sounds miserable.
- ewjordan 8y ago
- tingletech 8y agoThese scooters are a menace in Oakland -- people are riding them down crowded sidewalks at 20 MPH
- rockostrich 8y agoI don't know about Oakland, but in Boston these wouldn't be legal to ride on the sidewalk. Hell, they're barely legal to ride in the bike lane (only motorized vehicles that can't exceed 35 mph and that make a motor smaller than a certain size). Combine that with the fact that most riders won't be wearing helmets and it's a potentially deadly accident waiting to happen.
- sisk 8y agoFor the curious, the maximum motor size to ride in the bike lanes in Boston is 50cc.
- xanderjanz 8y agocc is a measurement of displacement, only useful for combustion engines. Equivalent for electric motors would be Wattage.
- tingletech 8y agoit is not legal to ride them on the sidewalk here (neither are bikes legal to ride on the sidewalk) but I see it everyday now -- with folks yelling "get out of my way"
- megy 8y agoWell off course, anything near a road is deadly. Just standing on the side of the road can be deadly. Anything around cars at all is incredibly dangerous. It is absolutely insane we allow cars anywhere near people.
- paulpauper 8y agoI think it's time for someone to invent Uber Walk: someone physically picks you up and carries you to your destination
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- zerostar07 8y agonot novel enough; the romans did that thousands of years ago
- SilasX 8y agoYou mean the litter chairs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_(vehicle)#Antiquity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_(vehicle)#Antiquity Funny name, given how the scooters are regarded. Edit: Just saw this comment after I posted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17491873 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17491873
- zerostar07 8y agoyes and the lecticae, i believe they were popular in Rome because carriages were not allowed.
- afarrell 8y agoI would totally download an app that listed people in my area beneath my stated weight threshold who wanted piggyback rides. However, it should prevent you from changing your weight threshold more than once every 2 days. Otherwise, you'd be able to binary-search to find random people's weights.
- Analemma_ 8y agoYou can hail hand-pulled rickshaws in a couple cities in India, which seems pretty close to this. There might even be an app for it.
- 8y ago
- kipdotcom 8y agoTaxify already has a rider feature in Nairobi, Kenya, called Boda within their app. It's insanely cheap and the ability to circumvent traffic is a huge plus. I'm happy this is coming to Uber as well.
- microdrum 8y agoScooters: a (small) feature within a large global mobility company. NOT a business unto itself.
- randyrand 8y agosame with taxi companies?
- eridius 8y agoWell, I guess it's time to delete the Lime app from my phone. Good thing there are multiple competitors.
- bit_logic 8y agoI was thinking about the debate on scooters and it made me realize something: Bike lanes are a disaster, probably one of the biggest mistakes in road design and planning. The basic idea was sound, but it was done the wrong way. Everywhere you see a bike lane, that should've been the concrete sidewalk extended into that area with a painted stripe separating pedestrians and bicycles. Go to a beach and you can see the correct implementation. Our sidewalks are simply not wide enough. What we have now is a cheap and bad solution. Nobody on bikes, scooter, etc. wants to be just a thin painted stripe away from cars that can kill them. But they are forbidden from sidewalks because they are too narrow. The right way to add bike lanes would've been to extend the sidewalks into the road (where the current bike lanes are) by pouring concrete there. Full protection from cars, wide enough for pedestrians and bicycles, scooters, etc. It's not too late to fix this, the bike lanes are there. Cities just need to spend the money to expand the sidewalks there. If they do this, there's potential for a true revolution in non-car mobility in the US.
- whelchel 8y agoThere is some merit to that idea but I think you may be missing a few things. Often, parking is placed between a bike lane and the side walk. Bikes need to be able to cross lanes, often in cities, to make left turns. How can they do that when they're up on a curb to start, but additionally, with potential street parking in the way? I think technically in many jurisdictions, bikes are to be treated as vehicles. Whether or not they're always treated that way is up for debate (and vice versa), but it may explain also partially why things were done that way.
- tedunangst 8y agoPeople in wheelchairs find ways to cross the street.
- KozmoNau7 8y agoPut the parking between the road and the bike lane/sidewalk instead. That's how most city streets are laid out in Copenhagen, af it provides a good safety buffer of parked cars.
- foobar1962 8y agoFrom the article: >Lime said its service, which lets customers rent scooters scattered around cities and leave them on the sidewalk for the next person to pick up I now look for a "Tragedy of the Common" errors in business models. That's it right there: they freely exploit a public resource without care or consequence. The fallacy is evident when we ask "What if everybody does this?"
- adventured 8y agoThere's an obvious outcome from that: the companies will pay a tax/fee to municipalities for the right to do that. There's no scenario where that doesn't occur universally in the future. Cities love to regulate anything and everything they can within their jurisdiction. If they charge a reasonable fee for it, it's net beneficial. There will be a lot more rules sketched out over time for this type of product.
- jonlucc 8y agoI guess I'm not sure I understand how this relates. Everybody already does do this. You are allowed to drop your bike off at a bike rack or on the sidewalk out of the way of traffic if you're brave (or have more faith in your neighbors than I do).
- foobar1962 8y ago> I guess I'm not sure I understand how this relates. Everybody already does do this. You are allowed to drop your bike off at a bike rack... Scenario: go to park your personal bike at the public bike rack only you discover it's full of bikes from some company who wants to make a buck out of it. A lot of these business models take advantage of resources that are "free" but have really cost a lot of money to set up and maintain, usually by the public. I'm in Sydney and am now starting to see share bikes littering the landscape. One had been dumped in a public ocean bath (at Balmoral).
- Steltek 8y agoYou'll probably saturate the market before you run out of parking. One car space converted to bike racks would hold 20 bikes and if bike share is truly that popular, it's an entirely viable option.
- crb 8y agoI read that in early June, scooter hire was halted in San Francisco and companies had to apply for licenses, which were expected to be issued by the end of the month. Any update on what is happening there?
- benjlang 8y agoWho here is charging for them?
- dayaz36 8y agoWhy doesn't Uber just provide their own scooters?
- ikeyany 8y agoThe same reason they currently don't provide their own cars.