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I think the incentive structure needs to change to discourage hoarding. Currently, the payout always increases as you hold onto a scooter. What I think solves t

I think the incentive structure needs to change to discourage hoarding. Currently, the payout always increases as you hold onto a scooter. What I think solves the problem is: * An small bonus for nabbing the scooter while it still has a bit of charge left (<10%). Essentially a quick turnaround bonus. For the sake of argument, lets say $1 bonus + $4 base to match the original minimum if it's back on the street within 24h and never lost power. * $4 if the scooter lost power, but is still returned within 48h. * +$1 for every day it's missing after 48h up to $10 total. * -$1 for every person that visits it's last known location after 2h and reports that they couldn't find it, down to $2 minimum. This is to encourage users to quickly attach the nabbed bird to power and "claim" them as soon as they pick them up instead of throwing it into their garage for a week then claiming them. * The scooter gets set to $20 "lost scooter" bounty after a month, which can only be claimed once a month per user. If the chargers want to play games, make it a game.

erentz 8y ago
Make it simpler. First this is theft, they should assign some folks to track and report this to police. Let that be known and people might start being more honest. Second you could just add something to the terms and conditions which allows them to cancel people’s rewards in these obvious cases. “Oh you happened to have 20 scooters at your address for two days and then suddenly charged and returned them. We’re cancelling your account.” Assign someone again to find these obvious examples of people hoarding scooters then cancel their accounts or whatever is appropriate. As this poster shows, the man power involved shouldn’t be all that much. Browsing on a map. Etc.
- sushid 8y ago
  That’s not a good way to change behavior. You’re essentially hoping that 1) law enformement agencies give a crap about this and 2) chargers learn that there are legal ramifications and change their behavior. Alternatively, as others have suggested, you can change the incentives to minimize hoarding. What do you think sounds more scalable/feasible?
  - erentz 8y ago
    Perhaps if the problem is hoarders taking scooters without checking them out first, I think freezing the charger reward price when a scooter is moved is probably the best technical solution. They’ll no longer have an incentive to take them and hold on to them waiting for the reward price to increase which is the problem explained in the article.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  More police involvement in a petty civil matter is unlikely to be a net positive for society.
  - erentz 8y ago
    If your bike or car gets stolen I hope you don’t involve the police in your “petty civil matter”.
    - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
      There is a big difference between theft and the "hoarding" described in this article. The scooters are used with permission. It's not much different than bringing a rental back late from a legal perspective. It just so happens that the scooter rental company hasn't set up its business in a way that vies people enough incentive to return them in the desired manner and time frame.
    - ticmasta 8y ago
      If your privately-owned scooter got stolen you'd be lucky to get the police do more than give you a case number. Good luck getting a detective to prioritize your case!
      - erentz 8y ago
        Having dealt with stolen property I know this pain. Certainly if Bird can change the incentives so this behavior isn’t rewarded (which seems feasible, see my other reply) then all the better. But if people are taking 20+ scooters off the street without checking them out I don’t see a problem with reporting this and asking for police assistance. I do think Bird should definitely warn everyone first that they know what is going on and will begin to involve the police if it continues so people can have the chance to avoid that mess.
    - pjc50 8y ago
      It's not even clear that these scooters are really stolen - Bird asked people to remove them from the street to their own property and charge them, it's just that people are being slow about it. Most theft laws require "intent to permanently deprive" or similar.
- btbuildem 8y ago
  Involving the police and another type of "Bird worker" is not simple, it complicates things. I think the parent post has the right idea -- use the existing situation (consumers and producers) and gamify it in such a way that reduces hoarding. That said, maybe there's a simpler way yet to do that.
  - JackFr 8y ago
    1) Identify hoarders with machine learning. 2) "We believe you are hoarding, and this is why: . . . " 3) Terminate charging account of hoarders.
- crankylinuxuser 8y ago
  > First this is theft, they should assign some folks to track and report this to police. Sure looks like a private company dumping their trash on the streets for profit. If I was to dump stuff on the street, I'd be cited for littering. And LiIon batteries are hazardous waste.
- eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
  I’m loving how persistent some of these comments are about how Silicon Valley creates a “theft” issue with their own business model and the response is to throw the problem at the police to solve, who have actual real problems to deal with. There is no theft. If these companies don’t want those contractors doing that, don’t incentivize it or remove them from the platform. Then if they continue to interact with the scooters after being banned, then it’s probably theft. If these docked at a specific location, the case for “theft” might be an easier sell. But they are literally designed to be left ANYWHERE.
wyldfire 8y ago
> * -$1 for every person that visits it's last known location after 2h and reports that they couldn't find it, down to $2 minimum. This is to encourage users to quickly attach the nabbed bird to power and "claim" them as soon as they pick them up instead of throwing it into their garage for a week then claiming them. What about giving them a commission on the next day's use of the scooters that they charged? Then they're incentivized to make them available. It might be challenging to balance this against "finding hard-to-spot scooters." Maybe steadily increase the commission on least-recently-used scooters?

erentz 8y ago

Make it simpler. First this is theft, they should assign some folks to track and report this to police. Let that be known and people might start being more honest. Second you could just add something to the terms and conditions which allows them to cancel people’s rewards in these obvious cases. “Oh you happened to have 20 scooters at your address for two days and then suddenly charged and returned them. We’re cancelling your account.” Assign someone again to find these obvious examples of people hoarding scooters then cancel their accounts or whatever is appropriate. As this poster shows, the man power involved shouldn’t be all that much. Browsing on a map. Etc.

sushid 8y ago
That’s not a good way to change behavior. You’re essentially hoping that 1) law enformement agencies give a crap about this and 2) chargers learn that there are legal ramifications and change their behavior. Alternatively, as others have suggested, you can change the incentives to minimize hoarding. What do you think sounds more scalable/feasible?
- erentz 8y ago
  Perhaps if the problem is hoarders taking scooters without checking them out first, I think freezing the charger reward price when a scooter is moved is probably the best technical solution. They’ll no longer have an incentive to take them and hold on to them waiting for the reward price to increase which is the problem explained in the article.
dsfyu404ed 8y ago
More police involvement in a petty civil matter is unlikely to be a net positive for society.
- erentz 8y ago
  If your bike or car gets stolen I hope you don’t involve the police in your “petty civil matter”.
  - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
    There is a big difference between theft and the "hoarding" described in this article. The scooters are used with permission. It's not much different than bringing a rental back late from a legal perspective. It just so happens that the scooter rental company hasn't set up its business in a way that vies people enough incentive to return them in the desired manner and time frame.
  - ticmasta 8y ago
    If your privately-owned scooter got stolen you'd be lucky to get the police do more than give you a case number. Good luck getting a detective to prioritize your case!
    - erentz 8y ago
      Having dealt with stolen property I know this pain. Certainly if Bird can change the incentives so this behavior isn’t rewarded (which seems feasible, see my other reply) then all the better. But if people are taking 20+ scooters off the street without checking them out I don’t see a problem with reporting this and asking for police assistance. I do think Bird should definitely warn everyone first that they know what is going on and will begin to involve the police if it continues so people can have the chance to avoid that mess.
  - pjc50 8y ago
    It's not even clear that these scooters are really stolen - Bird asked people to remove them from the street to their own property and charge them, it's just that people are being slow about it. Most theft laws require "intent to permanently deprive" or similar.
btbuildem 8y ago
Involving the police and another type of "Bird worker" is not simple, it complicates things. I think the parent post has the right idea -- use the existing situation (consumers and producers) and gamify it in such a way that reduces hoarding. That said, maybe there's a simpler way yet to do that.
- JackFr 8y ago
  1) Identify hoarders with machine learning. 2) "We believe you are hoarding, and this is why: . . . " 3) Terminate charging account of hoarders.
crankylinuxuser 8y ago
> First this is theft, they should assign some folks to track and report this to police. Sure looks like a private company dumping their trash on the streets for profit. If I was to dump stuff on the street, I'd be cited for littering. And LiIon batteries are hazardous waste.
eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
I’m loving how persistent some of these comments are about how Silicon Valley creates a “theft” issue with their own business model and the response is to throw the problem at the police to solve, who have actual real problems to deal with. There is no theft. If these companies don’t want those contractors doing that, don’t incentivize it or remove them from the platform. Then if they continue to interact with the scooters after being banned, then it’s probably theft. If these docked at a specific location, the case for “theft” might be an easier sell. But they are literally designed to be left ANYWHERE.

wyldfire 8y ago

> * -$1 for every person that visits it's last known location after 2h and reports that they couldn't find it, down to $2 minimum. This is to encourage users to quickly attach the nabbed bird to power and "claim" them as soon as they pick them up instead of throwing it into their garage for a week then claiming them. What about giving them a commission on the next day's use of the scooters that they charged? Then they're incentivized to make them available. It might be challenging to balance this against "finding hard-to-spot scooters." Maybe steadily increase the commission on least-recently-used scooters?