Hacker News Reader

Comment by blaisio | Hacker News Reader

I love these scooters! It's such a fun way to get around. There's a charger in my building, so they always leave scooters right outside for me, ready to go when I need them.

It's really an amazing experience. For a new user, it takes less than a minute to get started. The first time, as an engineer, I just was shocked that it was actually working so well!

I feel like it unlocks a whole new way to see the city for a lot of people.

The only thing that sucks is the battery only lasts about an hour, so it's not great for tourists who want to go on tour for a long time. Presumably a better battery would be more expensive and people would be more likely to steal it.

View on HN

It's better than City Bike which forces you to 30-minute sessions and to pre-established locking stations.

Citibike (in NYC) allows unlimited length checkouts, but simply starts charging by the hour past a certain grace threshold. It's not a huge surcharge either, roughly comparable to the amount that the electric scooters cost starting from the first minute.

You sure that Ford Bike (or whatever it's called) I'd wny different?

Pretty cool. I was tempted to take a few and race them around our office as we've got a lot of open space. Had to ask a friend about how it works; he contacted the company and unfortunately he wouldn't be ALLOWED to take it home after work, charge it at home, then return it somewhere the next AM. Yup, it's more acceptable to their T&C to leave it on the sidewalk in front of his suburban house than to actually charge and return it to a train station where it'll get used.

You can't sign up as both a rider and a charger? It seems like it should be pretty easy to ride home, sign out, then immediately "find" the scooter and get $5 while you charge it up.

I guess the can discourage this by making you drop it off at the nest before it can be checked out instead of letting you immediately check it out again the next day for the ride back to work or wherever.

If your house is near a nest you could still make it work I think. The only caveat being that the bird will probably disappear during the day while you are at work unless you hide it in your office.

I don't know, it seems kind of easy to game.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com