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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: staff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and how Stuff Works, and I love

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Speaker 1: all things tech. And once upon a time, not that

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Speaker 1: long ago, the only dangers I had to worry about

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Speaker 1: on my walks to and from work were bicyclists, slow walkers, joggers,

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Speaker 1: the occasional dude on one of those unicycle scooters, and

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Speaker 1: of course zombies because I'm in Atlanta. But over the

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Speaker 1: last several months, a new mode of transportation has become

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Speaker 1: increasingly popular along my walk. It's one that's popping up

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Speaker 1: in lots of cities across the world. I'm talking about

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Speaker 1: the GPS enabled rental scooters known as dockless scooters, belonging

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Speaker 1: to companies like Lime or Bird or one of a

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Speaker 1: half dozen others. So what's the story behind those scooters?

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Speaker 1: Where did this idea come from? How did it become

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Speaker 1: so popular? Well, the logic behind the companies that are

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Speaker 1: offering this service is actually pretty solid. Right, people need

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Speaker 1: to get around and getting stuck in traffic is a drag.

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Speaker 1: If you live in a city where there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of car traffic, you don't necessarily really enjoy getting into

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Speaker 1: your car at any given to point, and especially if

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Speaker 1: you have to go just a short distance. Meanwhile, many

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Speaker 1: cities in America are not terribly convenient if you happen

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Speaker 1: to be a pedestrian. Atlanta is one of those cities.

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Speaker 1: If you don't have a car in Atlanta, it's challenging

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Speaker 1: to get around. Now, my city is slowly getting better

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Speaker 1: in this regard, at least in some neighborhoods, but not

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Speaker 1: all of them. And bicycles can really help cut down

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Speaker 1: on car traffic plus pollution. It promotes exercise. There's been

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Speaker 1: several attempts at making bike sharing or renting infrastructure available

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Speaker 1: in various urban environments, and there are quite a few

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Speaker 1: bicycle rental companies and programs out there, apart from the

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Speaker 1: ones that you're gonna encounter in traditional spots like vacation

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Speaker 1: destinations where you rent a bike for a day and

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Speaker 1: you go along various bike trails. There's been a few

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Speaker 1: companies and organizations that have set up businesses and services

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Speaker 1: in various cities. A few cities, and some companies and

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Speaker 1: some colleges have experimented with providing free bicycles to a population.

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Speaker 1: They distribute bicycles across the city and people can just

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Speaker 1: grab one whenever they need it and ride for as

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Speaker 1: long as they want to. Google does this on their campus.

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Speaker 1: If you work at Google's campus and you need to

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Speaker 1: get across the area for a meeting, it's a pretty

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Speaker 1: big campus, so if you're in a one building and

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Speaker 1: you have to go meet in another one, that can

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Speaker 1: be a bit of a hike. So you can hop

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Speaker 1: on one of these bikes that are typically parked right

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Speaker 1: outside of the various buildings and you can ride it

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Speaker 1: over to your destination. Those bikes have no locking mechanisms

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Speaker 1: for the most part. A lot of these free bike

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Speaker 1: programs don't include any locking mechanisms or other preventive measures

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Speaker 1: in place because it's a little antithetical to the philosophy

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Speaker 1: behind the program. But that also means that those bikes

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Speaker 1: aren't protected against theft, and so you can end up

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Speaker 1: with some pretty tough distribution problems as well. Maybe people

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Speaker 1: have taken them and not return them, or maybe you

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Speaker 1: find out that all the bikes tend to end up

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Speaker 1: at the bottom of hills because no one ever wants

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Speaker 1: to ride the bikes back up a hill, so they

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Speaker 1: just leave them at the bottom of the hill, and

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Speaker 1: that's where they all accumulate. And so the bikes tend

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Speaker 1: to end up being away from the places where people

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Speaker 1: need them, and they collect in places where people don't

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Speaker 1: want them. That's a problem. Then there are coin operated

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Speaker 1: and automated docking station style services out there. Typically companies

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Speaker 1: that use these follow the same general plan. You as

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Speaker 1: a customer would need to go to a specific location,

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Speaker 1: such as a kiosk or a docking station, where there

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Speaker 1: would be bikes parked and locked in that station, and

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Speaker 1: there's the point where you would rent the bike and

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Speaker 1: it would release the bike, you could go ride it,

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Speaker 1: and when you were done, you are meant to return

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Speaker 1: the bike at a similar location. It might be a

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Speaker 1: similar kiosk or dock that's across town, but it belongs

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Speaker 1: to the same company and you have to take it

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Speaker 1: to that specific spot. You can't just leave the bike anywhere,

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Speaker 1: so you might pay for this rental with a smart

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Speaker 1: card or a phone map, so it makes it a

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Speaker 1: little more high tech. But this model has some fairly

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Speaker 1: big drawbacks as well, and the biggest is that the

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Speaker 1: renter has to find a spot to drop off the

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Speaker 1: bike when they're done with it. Now they can't just

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Speaker 1: ride it too, say their workplace and leave it outside

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Speaker 1: if their workplace doesn't have a docking station or kiosk.

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Speaker 1: But then over in China, some entrepreneurs came up with

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Speaker 1: a different approach. They went with a dockless bike model,

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Speaker 1: and that model allows riders to grab any available bike

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Speaker 1: that belongs to the company that happens to be in

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Speaker 1: the area, and then you unlock the bike with a

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Speaker 1: companion app in order to rent it, and then you

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Speaker 1: can ride that bicycle around and when you're done, you

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Speaker 1: would end the trip. You would pull open your app

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Speaker 1: and say all right, I'm done, and the bike would

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Speaker 1: have an electronic lock that would engage and prevent the

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Speaker 1: wheel or both wheels from turning, and then you would

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Speaker 1: just leave the bike wherever it happens to be, preferably

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Speaker 1: parked out of the way so it's not in the

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Speaker 1: line of traffic, but you can just leave it there.

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Speaker 1: And at the end of the day you might have

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Speaker 1: crews to go out and retrieve bicycles and then redistribute them,

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Speaker 1: or if they happen to be electronic bicycles like the

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Speaker 1: electric scooters are that you've been seeing popping up everywhere.

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Speaker 1: Maybe first they take them back to reach charge at

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Speaker 1: a central facility and then redistribute them later on early

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Speaker 1: the next morning. So your basic components of these bikes,

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Speaker 1: in addition to your typical bicycle parts that is, would

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Speaker 1: include a GPS receiver that is able to identify where

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Speaker 1: the bike is UH. Then there's some sort of transmitter

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Speaker 1: that sends this information, this location information back out to

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Speaker 1: the general system that the company uses to keep track

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Speaker 1: of all the different bikes UH. And then you would

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Speaker 1: have some sort of unique code on the bike itself.

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Speaker 1: There might be a string of characters, or it might

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Speaker 1: be a QR code, and this would be what the

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Speaker 1: user would input in their app to let the system

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Speaker 1: know this is the specific bicycle I want to use.

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Speaker 1: This is also a good way for the company to

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Speaker 1: make sure that if someone has rented a bike and

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Speaker 1: they're there just temporarily leaving it outside, they can keep

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Speaker 1: that bicycle locked until the UH the initial writer has

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Speaker 1: completely released it is that way you don't have to

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Speaker 1: worry about riding a bicycle to say a local store,

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Speaker 1: leaving it outside and then coming out and finding out

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Speaker 1: that the bike that you had rented is now gone

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Speaker 1: because someone else has rented it after you went inside

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Speaker 1: the store. Anyway, there's also the electric lock. Obviously, that's

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Speaker 1: the really important part. It can disengage or engage after

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Speaker 1: receiving the appropriate signal as relayed by the company's service.

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Speaker 1: So let's do a quick rundown of the major component

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Speaker 1: here of GPS, because I think it's fascinating how GPS works,

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Speaker 1: and it's been a long time since I've actually talked

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Speaker 1: about the process, and it really lets you appreciate the

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Speaker 1: ingenuity that went into designing the GPS navigation system. So

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Speaker 1: GPS stands for Global Positioning System, and so way above

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Speaker 1: our heads, way on space, there are a collection of

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Speaker 1: GPS satellites just whizzing around of there, and there about

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Speaker 1: thirty of them out in space. They were originally intended

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Speaker 1: to provide navigational data to the US military, but in

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Speaker 1: the ninety nineties, the US President Bill Clinton did away

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Speaker 1: with a policy that was called selective availability. Selective availability

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Speaker 1: would purposefully introduce errors into the positioning data. So if

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Speaker 1: you had a receiver and you didn't have the right

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Speaker 1: code to tune into the GPS network, you would get

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Speaker 1: location information that was wrong on purpose, not completely wrong,

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Speaker 1: but it wouldn't be accurate to within a few hundred feet.

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Speaker 1: So it wasn't really useful for anything because you wouldn't

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Speaker 1: you know it would It would be too imprecise. If

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Speaker 1: you were using it to get from point A to

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Speaker 1: point B. As a navigation system, it wouldn't recognize that

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Speaker 1: the turn you needed to take was a mile behind you. Well,

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Speaker 1: maybe a miles being pretty I'm exaggerating there, but you

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Speaker 1: might pass a turn and it might be several seconds

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Speaker 1: after you've passed it before your navigation system says, hey,

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Speaker 1: turn right at that place that was behind you. That

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Speaker 1: would be a problem. So Clinton did away with that

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Speaker 1: in the nineties, and at that point anyone could access

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Speaker 1: the accurate information. Before then, it was just the military

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Speaker 1: that could, and it was part of a strategy to

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Speaker 1: keep things safe by keeping that a military operation that

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Speaker 1: kind of expired in the nineties. Now anyone can use

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Speaker 1: GPS data and have it be pretty precise to within

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Speaker 1: just a few feet, So that's much more useful if

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Speaker 1: you want to do like point to point navigation systems.

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Speaker 1: So how does it work well. Each of those satellites

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Speaker 1: in that group overhead are sending out pulses of information,

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Speaker 1: and those pulses include a time stamp, which is incredibly important.

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Speaker 1: The time stamp indicates when the pulse is leaving the

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Speaker 1: satellite and also information about the satellites position above the Earth.

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Speaker 1: So no matter where you are on Earth, there are

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Speaker 1: at least four GPS satellites within line of sight of you.

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Speaker 1: That is, you are visible to at least four satellites.

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Speaker 1: A GPS receiver picks up on those signals that are

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Speaker 1: being sent out by the satellites, so it's essentially a

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Speaker 1: very high tech electronic ear And because the signals include

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Speaker 1: the satellites positional information and a time stamp, the receiver

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Speaker 1: can use that information to calculate how far away it

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Speaker 1: is from that respective satellite. The signals travel at the

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Speaker 1: speed of light, so you start with the time it

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Speaker 1: took from the point that the data was time stamped

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Speaker 1: to when it was received by the receiver, and then

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Speaker 1: work backward to figure out how far away the receiver

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Speaker 1: is from that satellite. So you know, if I were

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Speaker 1: to say, it takes the sound I make travels and

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Speaker 1: I'm just making this number of Let's say the sound

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Speaker 1: I make travels one feet every second, and it took

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Speaker 1: five seconds from the time I made a sound. Too.

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Speaker 1: When you heard it, you do some math, you say, oh,

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Speaker 1: that means I'm five feet away from Jonathan. Again, that

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Speaker 1: was just me using a very basic, completely not realistic example.

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Speaker 1: So the problem here is that this does not actually

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Speaker 1: tell you what your position is from one satellite. It's

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Speaker 1: one satellite alone, just tells you how far away you

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Speaker 1: are from that satellite. Doesn't tell you anything about your position,

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Speaker 1: just that you could be, in theory at any point

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Speaker 1: that is that distance away from the respective satellite. So

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Speaker 1: if you were to render this in a three D application,

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Speaker 1: You've got a satellite that's an orbit around Earth, and

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Speaker 1: you say, like, well, according to the this time stamp,

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Speaker 1: I must be I don't know, let's say five kilometers

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Speaker 1: from this satellite. Well, you could identify the satellite up

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Speaker 1: in the sky and you could draw a transparent sphere

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Speaker 1: that's five kilometers out from every direction from that satellite.

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Speaker 1: It would be like this globe surrounding the satellite. Some

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Speaker 1: of that sphere would intersect with the surface of Earth,

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Speaker 1: but that would mean that you had a whole bunch

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Speaker 1: of potential points where you could be based upon your

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Speaker 1: distance from that one satellite. So that's not enough to

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Speaker 1: let you know where you are, right, that's not enough information.

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Speaker 1: You could potentially be anywhere along those points of contact.

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Speaker 1: So you then have to look at more than one satellite.

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Speaker 1: If you can pick up signals from multiple satellites, you

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Speaker 1: can determine where you are. So you know you are

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Speaker 1: X distance from satellite A, your y distance from satellite B,

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Speaker 1: and your Z distance from satellite see. So you draw

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Speaker 1: your spheres around these three different satellites. They're all going

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Speaker 1: to intersect at a point on the face of Earth,

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Speaker 1: and that would be your location. That's the one point

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Speaker 1: that is the distance from all three of those satellites,

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Speaker 1: the respective distance from each of those satellites, so it

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Speaker 1: tells you where you would be. This approach, by the

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Speaker 1: way of determining your location is called trilateration. This is

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Speaker 1: different from triangulation because, as that name implies, triangulation is

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Speaker 1: all about using angles to determine your position. Trilateration is

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Speaker 1: about using distances from different known points. Also a word

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Speaker 1: about that time feature. This is also I think really interesting.

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Speaker 1: It's absolutely necessary for the satellites to send the time

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Speaker 1: data or else there's no way to calculate the distance

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Speaker 1: between the satellites and the receiver. But keeping accurate time

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Speaker 1: isn't an incredible challenge because you could easily have clocks

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Speaker 1: run out of uh, they could get desynchronized, right, This

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Speaker 1: just can happen. So GPS satellites do this. They keep

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Speaker 1: accurate synchronized time by using atomic clocks. Atomic clocks use

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Speaker 1: the resonance frequencies of atoms as the resonator. The resonator

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Speaker 1: is the part of the clock that keeps time. It's

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Speaker 1: kind of I come grandfather's clock clocks pendulum. Usually it

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Speaker 1: swings back once every second. That's a very slow resonator.

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Speaker 1: Atoms resonate much much much more more quickly, and more importantly,

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Speaker 1: if you have the atoms of specific stuff, they're always

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Speaker 1: going to resonate at the same frequency. They're very consistent.

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Speaker 1: I've got a little bit more to say about keeping

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Speaker 1: time with the satellites and the GPS network, as well

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Speaker 1: as getting back into the electric scooter land. But before

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Speaker 1: I get into any of that, let's take a quick

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Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsor. In addition to keeping accurate time.

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Speaker 1: The GPS network has to account for general and special relativity.

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Speaker 1: Yeah we're talking super important science here. So, according to

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Speaker 1: general relativity, the clocks on the satellites would run faster

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Speaker 1: than clocks on Earth because time runs slower if it's

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Speaker 1: in an environment that has a stronger gravitational pull. And

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Speaker 1: a clock on Earth would have a stronger gravitational pull

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Speaker 1: on it than a clock on a satellite, so the

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Speaker 1: clocks on Earth would run a little more slowly than

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Speaker 1: a clock in space. However, then you have special relativity.

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Speaker 1: Special relativity says that the relative speed of a given

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Speaker 1: object also determines how time will pass for that object.

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Speaker 1: The faster the object is going relative to another object,

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Speaker 1: the slower time will appear to pass for that uh

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Speaker 1: fast moving object. So, since satellites are moving very quickly

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Speaker 1: relative to a clock on Earth, the clocks on satellite

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Speaker 1: will appear to run more slowly than o'clock on Earth.

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Speaker 1: So they appear to run more quickly due to general relativity,

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Speaker 1: but more slowly due to special relativity. Special in general

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Speaker 1: relativity don't quite cancel each other out, so the GPS

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Speaker 1: network actually has to take into account both special and

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Speaker 1: general relativity when trying to make sure all these clocks

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Speaker 1: are synchronized properly, and it shows that Einstein was really

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Speaker 1: onto something and who would have thought that I could

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Speaker 1: fit in this quick discussion about relativity in an episode

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Speaker 1: that's all about electric scooters. So connected to this GPS

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Speaker 1: receiver on these dockless bikes and scooters as a processor

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Speaker 1: and a wireless communications device. It might be the equivalent

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Speaker 1: of like a cell phone. There's some that use three

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Speaker 1: gene networks to send information back to the general system,

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Speaker 1: but different ones may use different proprietary approaches. The nature

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Speaker 1: of the communications device depends upon the company, but essentially

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Speaker 1: it just comes out to being a type of wireless

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Speaker 1: ray deo that sends out information about the bike or

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Speaker 1: scooters location. The respective company or organization or whatever is

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Speaker 1: handling this receives that signal and then registers the vehicle's

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Speaker 1: location and frequently will incorporate the information into the app

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Speaker 1: that customers use. So if you're a customer, you can

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Speaker 1: follow up an app and you can look at a

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Speaker 1: map of your area and it should highlight the location

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Speaker 1: of available vehicles because they are constantly paying the system

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Speaker 1: with their location. This is also how the service is

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Speaker 1: able to locate these individual vehicles at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day so that they can redistribute them in the

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Speaker 1: appropriate places and also recharge any that run on electricity.

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Speaker 1: The electronic lock prevents people from just grabbing a scooter

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Speaker 1: or bike and taking it for a joy ride or

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Speaker 1: stealing it for themselves, and the lock prevents one or

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Speaker 1: both wheels from turning, So not much more to say

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Speaker 1: about that. It's pretty basic piece of technology. The unique

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Speaker 1: identify or for the bike, like I said, could be

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Speaker 1: a QR code, it could be a string of characters,

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Speaker 1: but it's unique to the bike or scooter so that

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Speaker 1: the network can send a signal for the lock to

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Speaker 1: disengage and begin the rental period for that user. Also

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Speaker 1: to alert users to the location of specific bikes, and

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Speaker 1: to keep the location of bikes that are still being

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Speaker 1: rented off of the map. Obviously, you wouldn't want to

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Speaker 1: show the location of every single vehicle that was belonging

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Speaker 1: to that system, because some of them might be in

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Speaker 1: use and they would not be available to someone else

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Speaker 1: who wants to just grab one right then and there.

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Speaker 1: So you have to have a way of identifying each

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Speaker 1: of these and saying all right, well, this one over

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Speaker 1: here is not in use, therefore I'm going to show

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Speaker 1: it on the map, whereas this one over here is

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Speaker 1: being used right now by somebody, so I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to have that pop up on the map. Okay. Now,

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Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier that these companies got started in China,

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Speaker 1: or that this kind of service got started in China.

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Speaker 1: The two largest companies in China that do this kind

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Speaker 1: of thing, especially with bicycles, are called o fo Ofo

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Speaker 1: That one has more than two million bikes in forty

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Speaker 1: three cities in China, and another one called Mobike, which

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Speaker 1: has more than one million bikes of its own. Now,

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Speaker 1: inspired by the success of those businesses in China, several

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Speaker 1: people in America decided to give this same concept to

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Speaker 1: go and early companies to get into dockleas bike sharing

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Speaker 1: in the US where Zagster Blue Go Go, which was

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Speaker 1: a Chinese company, subsequently it went bankrupt. There was a

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Speaker 1: spin which was recently acquired by Ford that Social Bicycles

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Speaker 1: also known as Jump Bikes, which is now owned by

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Speaker 1: Uber Motivated Company which is now owned by Lift and

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Speaker 1: Lime or as it was originally known, Lime Bike. Many

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Speaker 1: of those companies would pop up around the same time

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Speaker 1: around two thousand seventeen early two thousand eighteen, but in

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Speaker 1: different cities, and would rapidly expand out to other locations

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Speaker 1: as soon as the company's had secured enough funding to

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Speaker 1: do that, and funding came along pretty darn quickly. There

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Speaker 1: are a lot of different examples, but I'm gonna look

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Speaker 1: at two specifically. I'm gonna start with a line Bike

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Speaker 1: as an example. It's admittedly a pretty dramatic example, but

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Speaker 1: I think this is an interesting topic, not just from

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Speaker 1: the text side, but also from the business side. So

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Speaker 1: line Bike started as a startup in early and it

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Speaker 1: was not the first dockless bike startup in the United States,

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Speaker 1: but it did help define the model for success. You

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Speaker 1: had co founders Brad Boo and Toby's son. They started

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Speaker 1: the company in San Mateo, California, and they had the

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Speaker 1: goal of creating a dockless bike rental company akin to

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Speaker 1: what was going on in China. The actual rollout of

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Speaker 1: bikes would happen in April. Like many other bike sharing

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Speaker 1: and renting companies, Linebike opted to use special tires for

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Speaker 1: their bikes. They didn't use the inflated tires that you

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Speaker 1: would typically find on a bicycle. Instead, they are foam

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Speaker 1: core tires. This helps cut down on maintenance and repair costs,

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Speaker 1: as those tires aren't in as much danger of ripping

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Speaker 1: apart or deflating, you know, getting a puncture. Other companies

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Speaker 1: have used similar tires, some of them are even solid

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Speaker 1: rubber tires. I imagine that these probably are a bit

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Speaker 1: more stiff in the ride than your typical inflated tire bikes,

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Speaker 1: but I've never actually been on once, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: The pricing model for a line Bike originally was a

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Speaker 1: dollar every half hour, and investors obviously thought that this

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Speaker 1: was a promising idea, so at launch, firms like Andrea

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Speaker 1: sen Horowitz and I d G Ventures poured twelve million

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Speaker 1: dollars into the company, and that was just the first

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Speaker 1: round of funding, which happened in March. The following October

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Speaker 1: they had a second round of funding where they raised

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Speaker 1: fifty million dollars in investment. Then in February, line Bike

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Speaker 1: got another round of funding, this time at seventy million dollars,

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Speaker 1: and in July two thousand eighteen, they got yet another

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Speaker 1: round of funding for an amazing three hundred thirty five

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Speaker 1: million dollars in investments, which meant that by July eighteen,

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Speaker 1: Lime had reached a valuation of one point one billion dollars,

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Speaker 1: and by then the company wasn't just offering up bikes

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Speaker 1: but also electric scooters. But that's not all. In October

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Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen, Bloomberg reported that Lime was looking for

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Speaker 1: even more financing, and this time at evaluation of more

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Speaker 1: than three billion dollars. Rumor has it that the company

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Speaker 1: has also been in talks with Uber about a possible acquisition.

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Speaker 1: And Lime story is incredible, but it's not unique. There's

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Speaker 1: another electric scooter duckless rental company called Bird that has

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Speaker 1: also experienced a meteoric rise. Bird was founded by a

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Speaker 1: man named Travis vander Zanden. It was launched in two

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Speaker 1: thousand seventeen in Santa Monica, California, and vanders Enden had

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Speaker 1: previously worked as an executive at both Lift and Uber,

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Speaker 1: so he had experience in this world, just in the

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Speaker 1: car world. Uh leading into this, he secured fifteen million

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Speaker 1: dollars in funding in February two thousand eighteen. Just one

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Speaker 1: month later, a second round of funding raised one hundred

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Speaker 1: million dollars on in May, the company saw another one

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Speaker 1: hundred fifty million dollars in investment, which catapulted Bird into

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Speaker 1: the billion dollar valuation, making Bird the startup to reach

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Speaker 1: the fabled unicorn status the fastest and start up speak,

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Speaker 1: a unicorn is a company that reaches a billion dollars

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Speaker 1: in valuation, and you hear a lot about unicorns in

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Speaker 1: tech business speak. But of course the story doesn't stop there.

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Speaker 1: In June two thousand eighteen, Bird got another three hundred

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Speaker 1: million dollars in financing that boosted the valuation up to

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Speaker 1: two billion, and Bird, like Lime, is seeking additional financing

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Speaker 1: and apparently is doing so at evaluation even more than

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Speaker 1: lines three point three billion dollars. Incredible. The electric scooter

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Speaker 1: trend started up around the end of and it really

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Speaker 1: began to get momentum, so to speak. In generally, the

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Speaker 1: companies behind these business models followed a pretty brazen philosophy.

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Speaker 1: They would move operations into a city, they would secure

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Speaker 1: facilities to recharge scooters, and they would hire on staff

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Speaker 1: to retrieve the vehicles at the end of the day

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Speaker 1: and then place those scooters in strategic high traffic areas

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Speaker 1: the next morning, all without first talking to city officials

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Speaker 1: about it. The general approach has been, don't ask for permission,

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Speaker 1: just go out and do it, and then deal with

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Speaker 1: any issues as they pop up. What just caused more

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Speaker 1: than just a few problems along the way. I'll explain

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Speaker 1: more in just a moment, but first let's take another

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Speaker 1: quick break to thank our sponsor. It's a pretty common

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Speaker 1: thread in technology that the law tends to lag behind innovation. Frequently,

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Speaker 1: inventive people will create transformative technology that does not neatly

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Speaker 1: fit into pre existing regulatory infrastructure, and then you get

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Speaker 1: the awkward scramble as governments try to incorporate something new

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Speaker 1: into a system that doesn't always deal with new stuff

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Speaker 1: really well. We've seen this with autonomous cars, we're seeing

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Speaker 1: it with artificial intelligence, and we're also seeing it with

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Speaker 1: these bike rental and scooter rental companies. Rather than risk

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Speaker 1: being denied the chance to do business in a city,

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Speaker 1: many of these companies bypass the tricky step of getting

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Speaker 1: permission and they just go straight into getting to work.

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Speaker 1: But then you get a sudden flood of scooters in

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Speaker 1: a city that may or may not have local laws

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Speaker 1: dictating how such vehicles are supposed to operate, and cities

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Speaker 1: scooters might be treated like bicycles, and there may be

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Speaker 1: rules in place that say writers are supposed to wear

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Speaker 1: helmets at all times, they're supposed to stick to roads

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Speaker 1: and streets, they're supposed to stay off sidewalks. Other cities

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Speaker 1: might have the opposite. They might say that scooters are

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Speaker 1: not street legal and people should never ride on streets

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Speaker 1: or roads and only stick to maybe bike paths, sidewalks,

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Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Some cities have no real regulations

434
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,200
Speaker 1: at all for them because there are still a relatively

435
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 1: new form of transportation. So if you live in a

436
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,320
Speaker 1: city that has one or more of these companies that

437
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:39,920
Speaker 1: are in operation in your area, you've likely either heard

438
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: someone complaining about them, or maybe you've done some grousing yourself.

439
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 1: I know I have, But in my case it tends

440
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:51,480
Speaker 1: to be directed not towards the companies necessarily, as I

441
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: think their business model is a valid one, if not

442
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,920
Speaker 1: questionably applied. I think that asking for the permit approach

443
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: is the more responsible way to do it, maybe not

444
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,960
Speaker 1: the most profitable, but more responsible. But my ire is

445
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:11,879
Speaker 1: directed more toward irresponsible or disrespectful customers. You can't necessarily

446
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,119
Speaker 1: blame a company for the quality of its customers unless

447
00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:18,240
Speaker 1: that company is actively cultivating a customer base of jerk

448
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: faces through its messaging, branding, and execution. But just a

449
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:27,200
Speaker 1: quick search online for duckless electric scooters or using actual

450
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:29,679
Speaker 1: company names like Lime or Bird or one of the

451
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:32,600
Speaker 1: numerous other companies out there is going to bring up

452
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:36,280
Speaker 1: tons of articles about how the scooters are causing headaches

453
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:40,320
Speaker 1: in cities around the world. So, for example, a piece

454
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,119
Speaker 1: on NPR's website that was published in August two thousand

455
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:48,160
Speaker 1: eighteen has the title Duckless scooters gain Popularity and scorn

456
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:52,239
Speaker 1: across the US. The piece details how the scooters are

457
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 1: getting an enthusiastic reaction from users and inspiring frustration or

458
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 1: worse in others, and it points out that now there

459
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 1: are entire social media accounts dedicated to some of the

460
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:08,439
Speaker 1: more egregious examples of bad user behavior, such as an

461
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:13,960
Speaker 1: Instagram account called scooters Behaving Badly. City governments are starting

462
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,160
Speaker 1: to respond to this. In June two thousand eighteen, San

463
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 1: Francisco's government ordered all electric scooter companies to cease and

464
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: desist operations until those companies secured permits. The city announced

465
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:30,439
Speaker 1: that all electric scooters from those companies would have to

466
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 1: be off San Francisco streets and sidewalks by June four,

467
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,639
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen. Otherwise the companies would face a one

468
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: dollars per day fine for every scooter of theirs that

469
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 1: was left in a public right of way after June four.

470
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 1: In addition, San Francisco City government ruled that it would

471
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 1: only issue permits for up to five companies MAX in

472
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 1: a pilot program. Why did San Francisco react this way,

473
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:01,880
Speaker 1: It was largely in response to complaints from city residents.

474
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 1: There were numerous incidents of scooters blocking sidewalks and ramps

475
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 1: up to sidewalks, which made it harder for people to

476
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,240
Speaker 1: navigate when they were just walking on foot as a pedestrian.

477
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: The city was particularly concerned about the welfare of the

478
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 1: elderly and those with mobility issues, because you know, you

479
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:22,720
Speaker 1: have a scooter left on a sidewalk ramp that might

480
00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 1: prevent someone in a wheelchair from being able to get

481
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 1: off the street and onto the sidewalk. In addition, there

482
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: were concerns that writers were not operating the scooters safely

483
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 1: or even with common sense, in some cases, putting themselves

484
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 1: and others at risk. The permit program allows for a

485
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 1: one year trial, and that trial has some other pretty

486
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 1: big restrictions on it. Within the first six months of

487
00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 1: the trial, there could be no more than one thousand,

488
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 1: two hundred fifty scooters on San Francisco's streets. After that

489
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:57,320
Speaker 1: half year period of things are looking okay like they're

490
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 1: still working, then the city government can bump that up

491
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,720
Speaker 1: to two thousand, five hundred scooters for the entire city.

492
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:07,520
Speaker 1: But to be considered for a permit, the companies have

493
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: to provide proof that they will operate responsibly within the city,

494
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,720
Speaker 1: which includes having a plan in place to keep sidewalks

495
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:16,000
Speaker 1: clear of the scooters, which seems to me to be

496
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 1: a pretty tall order because that relies on user behavior,

497
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 1: and if users don't follow the rules, the companies are

498
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,120
Speaker 1: the ones that suffer for it. That might not be

499
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 1: entirely fair, but at the same time, I don't really

500
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 1: know what the solution would be, as it's pretty hard

501
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,600
Speaker 1: to dictate to users what they must and must not

502
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:35,560
Speaker 1: do when they are unsupervised. In addition to keeping the

503
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:39,680
Speaker 1: sidewalks clear, the companies also have to provide insurance that

504
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:45,160
Speaker 1: to give trip data to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation agency,

505
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:47,480
Speaker 1: and they have to prove that the companies have privacy

506
00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 1: and security measures in place to protect customers. In October

507
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen, San Francisco began the scooter share permit

508
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: and pilot program with just two companies. One of them

509
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 1: is called Scoot and the other is called Skip. These

510
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 1: two companies operate in relatively small regions in the city.

511
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:09,720
Speaker 1: I mean they have to. There are only one thousand,

512
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 1: two d fifty scooters allowed in total between the two

513
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:17,080
Speaker 1: of them, so it's impractical to offer wide coverage. You

514
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: would rarely, if ever, run across a scooter, so they

515
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: operate in pretty small areas within the city. So interestingly,

516
00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 1: the limited availability of scooters in certain neighborhoods in San

517
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 1: Francisco has created a new disagreement, a new argument among

518
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 1: city officials. There are representatives from some of those neighborhoods

519
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:41,800
Speaker 1: who have complained that the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authorities

520
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:45,800
Speaker 1: approach means that the districts they represent have few, if

521
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:49,080
Speaker 1: any scooters available, so the people who live in those

522
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 1: districts can't take advantage of those services. So while the

523
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:55,800
Speaker 1: initial problem was that there were too many of these

524
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 1: darned scooters everywhere. Now the opposite is true. Now you've

525
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 1: got people complaining that there aren't enough scooters out there,

526
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 1: and that's probably in the back of the minds of

527
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 1: many of the executives at these companies, because if they

528
00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:12,360
Speaker 1: can launch their service quickly in cities without first getting

529
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: permission from the city government, they can create a business

530
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,280
Speaker 1: that at least some people are going to find useful

531
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: and fun, and some will even think of it as

532
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: a a necessary service once they start relying on it

533
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 1: more frequently. And then as cities respond to complaints or

534
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 1: they try to get a grip on what is going

535
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:35,959
Speaker 1: on to make sure everything is being operated in a

536
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 1: safe and responsible manner, the cities are the ones that

537
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 1: have to deal with the backlash from customers. If they

538
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 1: are to remove those scooters, you're gonna have a bunch

539
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:50,320
Speaker 1: of angry citizens who say, you're taking away something that

540
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 1: I use to get to and from work, for example.

541
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like a parent taking away a

542
00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,600
Speaker 1: favorite toy from their child and then having to deal

543
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:02,680
Speaker 1: with the imper tantrum, except in this case, I'm being unfair.

544
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: I think temper tantrum is really being unfair. Because for

545
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,240
Speaker 1: some people, these these electric scooters really have been a

546
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:13,880
Speaker 1: way to become independent of cars. If they're just taking

547
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:18,160
Speaker 1: short trips between locations, then they can hop on one

548
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 1: of these things. They don't have to drive. They're not

549
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 1: contributing to the traffic issues or the pollution, So there

550
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: are legit arguments for using these services, even if those

551
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:34,280
Speaker 1: services came into cities without the first, you know, getting permission.

552
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:37,600
Speaker 1: While all this is going on, it is good to

553
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 1: remember that Blue Go Go, that Chinese bike sharing company

554
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, did go out of business and went bankrupt.

555
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:47,400
Speaker 1: So some analysts say that might indicate that this whole

556
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:51,480
Speaker 1: duckless sharing model, both for bicycles and for scooters, could

557
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 1: be a bubble, and that there could be a bubble

558
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:58,640
Speaker 1: burst in the future. There's also no shortage of competing

559
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,560
Speaker 1: companies out there, although only a few have really seen

560
00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: the monumental financial success at least from an investment standpoint

561
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:09,879
Speaker 1: of a company like Bird or Lime, and as right

562
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:13,040
Speaker 1: hailing companies like Uber and Lift get more involved, will

563
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:16,280
Speaker 1: probably see more integrated approaches rolling forward, so to speak.

564
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: I didn't even cover issues of cities seeing a rise

565
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,759
Speaker 1: in things like people getting injured, broken bones, or even

566
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 1: fist fights that are broken out over scooters. Things like that.

567
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 1: That's also happening. But you know that's again I can't

568
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:38,200
Speaker 1: necessarily fault the companies for this. That's again user behavior.

569
00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 1: So will the dockless electric scooter business models survive? I

570
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 1: think so. I think it's likely to continue, and we're

571
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 1: probably gonna see a real patchwork approach to it as

572
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:52,000
Speaker 1: different cities respond in different ways. Some will be more restrictive,

573
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: some more permissive, and I doubt all the different companies

574
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 1: are going to stick around. I'm sure a few will

575
00:34:57,600 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 1: follow in Blue Go Goes Away can eventually go out

576
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 1: of suineness or get acquired by competitors. But at fifteen

577
00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 1: cents per minute for a lot of these electric scooter models,

578
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:10,319
Speaker 1: it's a pretty cheap way to get around, and when

579
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:12,759
Speaker 1: you're scooting about at fifteen miles an hour, it's got

580
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 1: to be fun. Also, just full disclosure, I have never

581
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:19,280
Speaker 1: ever ridden on one of these electric scooters. I suspect

582
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:22,279
Speaker 1: I would fall off almost immediately because I'm old and

583
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,719
Speaker 1: I don't have great balance. I would love to give

584
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: one a try, but I've actually seen a guy take

585
00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:30,400
Speaker 1: a really serious spill off of one of these in

586
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 1: a major street in Atlanta called Highland, and he did

587
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 1: a real tumble. And if that had happened to me,

588
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 1: he bounced up pretty quickly and seemed more embarrassed than

589
00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:42,879
Speaker 1: anything else. I would not have bounced up. I would

590
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:46,200
Speaker 1: have crunched. I would have been embarrassed and injured. So

591
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm ever going to get on

592
00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:51,440
Speaker 1: one of these anytime soon, but they are interesting to me.

593
00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:55,640
Speaker 1: I'm curious if you guys have them in your neighborhoods.

594
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,160
Speaker 1: Do you what what's your opinion? Do you think they're great?

595
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:01,440
Speaker 1: Do you think they are a blight on civilization? And

596
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 1: if you have any other suggestions for episodes of tech Stuff,

597
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:06,120
Speaker 1: get in touch with me. You can write me. The

598
00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,920
Speaker 1: email address is tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com.

599
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:12,240
Speaker 1: You can go to our website that is text stuff

600
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:15,960
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. There are other ways to contact me

601
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:18,920
Speaker 1: on that site. Don't forget to go to our store

602
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:21,880
Speaker 1: that's over at t public dot com slash tech Stuff.

603
00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:24,120
Speaker 1: Every purchase you make goes to help the show. We

604
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:27,719
Speaker 1: greatly appreciate it. And hey, don't forget, votes are still

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Speaker 1: being counted for the I heart Radio Podcast Awards, and

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00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:37,480
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Speaker 1: Radio Podcast Awards, you will find that you can vote

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Speaker 1: you can vote all five of those for my show.

611
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:49,800
Speaker 1: I would greatly appreciate it. I look forward to finding

612
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,680
Speaker 1: out if I won in late January two thousand nineteen,

613
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:57,800
Speaker 1: and uh then panicking if I have to give a speech.

614
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 1: Make me panic, folks. That's what I'm saying. That's it

615
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 1: for me, and I'll talk to you again really soon

616
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is

617
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:23,279
Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com