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Looking at the roadmaps for the core component (batteries) they definitely jumped the gun. Sodium Ion batteries should produce dirt cheap scooters that will pr

Looking at the roadmaps for the core component (batteries) they definitely jumped the gun. Sodium Ion batteries should produce dirt cheap scooters that will probably be 1/3 the cost of whatever they were using back when they invested. And "sharing" is kind of stupid. If you own your escooter, the battery will probably be removable (for easy recharging) and you just lock up the shell. Sharing is basically only good for tourism. E-bike sharing? It is bigger/heavier, that does make slightly more sense. I don't think their investment jumpstarted some fundamental movement either, maybe it helped nudge it a few years earlier, but ebikes/escooters are simply an inevitability of cheap dense batteries.

dilyevsky 4y ago
Afaik Taiwan has a network of swappable batteries for their (road) scooters so you can plug a fresh pack and go. Seems way more sensible than that SV shared scooter nonsense. Edit: https://www.gogoro.com/ https://www.gogoro.com/
qball 4y ago
>And "sharing" is kind of stupid. If you own your escooter Then it gets stolen. The main value of the rentables comes in making it so you never have to deal with that eventuality. The fact that they're far more difficult for the average thief to turn a profit from stealing compared to a private vehicle is a bonus for the company (getting away with stealing one requires a Faraday cage or some similar way to jam GPS, and you have to strip it for parts because even the shadier pawn shops won't accept obviously stolen-but-repainted gear), as is the side-effect that (because they're interchangeable) it's fantastic for people who come to the city by car but don't want the inherent hassle that is driving downtown. Yes, you still have to dispatch people to charge them up (and swappable batteries is something that takes a bit of time to figure out), and sometimes they get destroyed by angry would-be thieves for shits and giggles, but that cost also scales sublinearly as you deploy more of them. And once the batteries have worn to the point of uselessness hopefully batteries are cheaper- a prediction that's likely correct.
- xyzzy123 4y ago
  Agree, low ROI on theft, at least until we run into a supervillain who is short on cash and needs thousands of powerful hub motors and batteries.
  - dr-evil 4y ago
    No but if you can get your hands on some laser beams with shark-mounting hardware I would be interested.
  - dole 4y ago
    Trade ya for a massive social media company?
- robennals 4y ago
  Getting stolen is only a problem if you leave your scooter somewhere public. One of the big advantages of an electric scooter over an e-bike is that some of them fold down small enough that you can just carry them wherever you are going. Nobody is going to steal it if it’s sitting under your desk charging.
- lmm 4y ago
  The breakdown of public order to the point that bike/scooter theft is rampant and normalised seems like the real issue here. Police apathy seems like a big part of the problem, but fundamentally how do we solve that?

dilyevsky 4y ago

Afaik Taiwan has a network of swappable batteries for their (road) scooters so you can plug a fresh pack and go. Seems way more sensible than that SV shared scooter nonsense. Edit: https://www.gogoro.com/ https://www.gogoro.com/

qball 4y ago

>And "sharing" is kind of stupid. If you own your escooter Then it gets stolen. The main value of the rentables comes in making it so you never have to deal with that eventuality. The fact that they're far more difficult for the average thief to turn a profit from stealing compared to a private vehicle is a bonus for the company (getting away with stealing one requires a Faraday cage or some similar way to jam GPS, and you have to strip it for parts because even the shadier pawn shops won't accept obviously stolen-but-repainted gear), as is the side-effect that (because they're interchangeable) it's fantastic for people who come to the city by car but don't want the inherent hassle that is driving downtown. Yes, you still have to dispatch people to charge them up (and swappable batteries is something that takes a bit of time to figure out), and sometimes they get destroyed by angry would-be thieves for shits and giggles, but that cost also scales sublinearly as you deploy more of them. And once the batteries have worn to the point of uselessness hopefully batteries are cheaper- a prediction that's likely correct.

xyzzy123 4y ago
Agree, low ROI on theft, at least until we run into a supervillain who is short on cash and needs thousands of powerful hub motors and batteries.
- dr-evil 4y ago
  No but if you can get your hands on some laser beams with shark-mounting hardware I would be interested.
- dole 4y ago
  Trade ya for a massive social media company?
robennals 4y ago
Getting stolen is only a problem if you leave your scooter somewhere public. One of the big advantages of an electric scooter over an e-bike is that some of them fold down small enough that you can just carry them wherever you are going. Nobody is going to steal it if it’s sitting under your desk charging.
lmm 4y ago
The breakdown of public order to the point that bike/scooter theft is rampant and normalised seems like the real issue here. Police apathy seems like a big part of the problem, but fundamentally how do we solve that?