This stuff is a side effect of Silicon Valley centralizing upside and decentralizing the downside with all these app based gig jobs. These guys don't work for

This stuff is a side effect of Silicon Valley centralizing upside and decentralizing the downside with all these app based gig jobs. These guys don't work for anyone, so you don't have normal B2B procurement for the batteries, nor safe places (warehouses, restaurants, dispatch) to charge. So instead you end up with guys buying & supplying sketchy batteries, charging way too many, unattended, in living spaces and shops overnight. It also makes enforcement nearly impossible because instead of dealing with 100s or 1000s of business entities, you have 10,000s or 100,000s of individual contractors violating the law. Some gig workers in NYC are even subbing out their ID/account so undocumented migrants can work illegally.. so the lack of accountability only spirals.