>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 w

>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.