Isnt vandalism a problem with dock-less scooters ?
I can imagine someone passing by, picking up one of these and dumping it into a garbage can.
Maybe the margins are so high they can just effort to replace them ?
I can imagine someone passing by, picking up one of these and dumping it into a garbage can.
Maybe the margins are so high they can just effort to replace them ?
Yes.
http://www.foxla.com/news/local-news/electric-scooters-accus...
Ugh, I feel bad for poor thing and people who have to clean this mess up.
If you don't like the scooters petition your gonverment to regulate it.
It's also possible that these companies are taking the loss to gain market penetration, hoping to find a solution to the vandalism problem before the VC money dries up.
They've disclosed that an average scooter does 5.5 trips/day ($5.50), assuming everyone rides at max speed nonstop, that still ~$14.50/day. Pays for itself in under 2 months.
Bird probably manages to get a further $25-30 off that, so perhaps as low as $120 per scooter, plus perhaps $10 for the bird brain modification and shipping by container, another $10-15.
So theoretically, a scooter could pay for itself in 10-20 days if used that heavily. I'd say that they are very capable of absorbing the cost of the occasional one going missing
I think a lot of people are being quite optimistic about the economics of these. That said I really hope they are successful. Anything to reduce car traffic.
But, in general, people tend not to destroy stuff just because they can, just like they don't kill old people just because they can't defend themselves, and don't consider "soft paywalls" meaningless just because they can easily fool them.
Cars can also easily be scratched, and it's not one of the major problems of humanity. Dockless bike-sharing has been a thing for over a decade. And while there is some vandalism, it's not prohibitive. In fact, people have left their bikes in public spaces for decades.
Society would brake down if everything required physical defences against any possible threat. Luckily, people tend to be more Russeauean than Hobbian.