WEBVTT - Update E Scooters 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.720 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.759 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.280 I Heart Radio and How Stuff Works, and I love 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.480 all things tech and I thought maybe we should do 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:26.599 a little update about electronic scooters. For those of you 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:28.640 who have been listening to the show for a while, 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.240 you might remember that back in November two thousand eighteen, 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:34.560 it's a little less than a year ago, I did 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:39.160 an episode about where these East scooter companies came from 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:42.919 and how they were forming their business models, and how 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.880 they were popping up in cities all across the world, 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:48.760 and how those cities were reacting to them. And since 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.599 it's been about a year, I thought we should revisit that. 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.319 And part of the reason I decided to do this, 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:59.360 it's actually because there have been some high profile tragedies 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:04.119 on fortunately in two thousand nineteen with regards to UH 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:07.000 these eat scooters, UM, some of which have happened here 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:12.720 in Atlanta. We've had UH three or four accidents with 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:17.560 East scooters recently in Atlanta News, including a couple with fatalities, 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.360 which is a horrible horrible tragedy obviously, and it raises 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.240 a lot of questions about what do we do to 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.600 make sure that these scooters, if we're going to have 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.000 them in our cities, that people are using them appropriately, 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.840 that we're having all the right legislation in place so 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.920 that people know what the rules are, and that we 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:43.160 can make sure that if in fact they're here to stay, 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.759 that no one is going to have a tragedy like that, again, 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.200 to the best of our ability, knowing that we can't 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.680 prevent everything. And there have been other accidents as well. 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.160 There was a very high profile accident in London where 0:01:56.280 --> 0:02:00.639 a YouTuber was in involved in a cry fashion around 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:05.040 about and she sadly passed away from her injuries. And 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.359 I should add that in London it's against the law 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.840 to ride east scooters at all. You can't. You're not 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.360 supposed to ride them on the roads or on the 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:19.480 sidewalks or pavements as they say. So in this episode, 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.000 we're gonna look a little bit about what's been going 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.880 on in the scooter world over the last year, some 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:31.040 of the challenges that the industry faces and the ways 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:35.200 that they're trying to go about meeting those challenges. So 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:38.679 before I jump into all that, I want to talk 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:44.120 about my own personal experience, not writing scooters, because spoiler alert, 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.840 I have not done that. I have not hopped on 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:52.040 one of these scooters, but my experience navigating a world 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:56.079 in which these scooters play a large part. Now Here, 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:01.760 in Atlanta we have specific law regarding scooter use. I 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:07.040 don't know how widely understood or unknown they are, but 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.160 in Atlanta it is technically against the law to ride 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:13.919 a scooter on the sidewalk or pavement. This is not unusual. 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:15.799 There are a lot of cities that have similar laws. 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:18.919 And if you are riding a scooter, you are supposed 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.600 to do it either on a road, preferably in a 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.880 bike lane if there is one. Atlanta has a shortage 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:31.280 of those, or you can ride it on a kind 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.880 of a special pathway. There are a few of those 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.920 in Atlanta. Big one is called the belt Line, and 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:43.360 the belt Line is part of this pedestrian walkway and 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:47.280 bicycle lane and and now scooter lane as well that 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:54.120 stretches a good way around downtown Atlanta. And the office 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.640 that I work in is right off the belt line, 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.480 so I walk to and from work and about a 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:04.600 mile of my walk is along this particular pathway, and 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.440 on nice days it gets fairly congested with lots of 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.880 people who are out there to enjoy the day. Perfectly understandable. 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.720 And the thing that really prompted me to talk about 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.799 this today happened on the Saturday before I record this episode. 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.440 Typically on a Saturday, you wouldn't find me anywhere near 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:26.560 the belt Line because I would probably be playing video 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.760 games at home, or running errands with my wife for 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.640 walking my dog, or something called on those lines. But 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.080 on this particular Saturday, I had decided that I needed 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.400 to go to the gym, which is in the same 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.120 building as where my office is. So I took the 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.159 three mile walk to get here, and that last mile 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:50.000 was torture. It was so crowded. It was a nice day, 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.640 and there were tons of people on the belt line 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.520 and about half of them were on scooters. And it 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.679 was odd to be in a traffic congestion situation where 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.400 the vehicle in question wasn't a car and it wasn't 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.520 even a bicycle, but it was this, you know, just 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.760 this huge number of scooters. And in Atlanta we have 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.080 quite a few of those companies represented. You know, you 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.480 have Lime, you have Bird, and you've got a bunch 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:21.839 of others. Um Lift has some scooters around town as well, So, uh, 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.960 this was you know, there's no shortage of of representation 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:28.760 on the belt line. And as I was walking there 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:33.000 and watching people wobble around on these things, some people 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:34.839 going quite well, but you couldn't know one could go 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.159 fast because there's just too many people out there on 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.480 the belt line that it it occurred to me that 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:45.000 we need to have some deeper discussions about safety and 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:49.760 responsibility and accountability as far as these scooters are concerned. 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.240 And UM, I also saw a lot of people violating 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.239 some of the rules for scooters, one of them being 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.640 that it's only supposed to be one person per scooter, 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.280 and I saw quite a few cups doubled up, and uh, 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.520 that's against that's against the law in Atlanta, folks. For 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.600 those of you who are in Atlanta and listen to 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.040 this show and also write scooters, just want to let 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:15.680 you know that you're you're you're breaking the law there. 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.239 It's also against the law and a lot of other places. 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.480 So let's talk about some of the challenges that scooters 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:28.120 have faced in the past year. UM and one of 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.919 the big ones that I think I should cover is 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.000 just the challenge of the business model itself. For the 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.360 business model to work, this is pretty common sense stuff. 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.160 But you've got to make sure you're bringing in more 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.840 money than you're spending. I mean, that's just typical business, right, 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.520 there's nothing special about that. You have to make more 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:51.240 than it costs to operate the business, otherwise you're in 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.680 a money losing situation and sooner or later you have 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.560 to go out of business. And Bird, one of the 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:01.480 big companies doing this, was is in a situation where 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.640 some people were questioning whether or not the company was 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:08.440 going to survive. It had raised something like seven hundred 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:14.680 million dollars in investment funding, and it apparently had lost 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.000 a hundred million dollars in the first quarter of two 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:22.080 thousand nineteen and was in uh some serious trouble and 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:24.600 was already looking at its next round of fundraising in 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:29.880 order to stay in business. Now on to get the 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.880 full picture here. The CEO of Birds said one that 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.800 hundred million dollars actually represented it right off, and it 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:42.080 was a rite off for older scooters that didn't have 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:46.920 the durability that they needed for this business model. To work, 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.600 and two that they were actually making a profit on 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.920 a per ride basis of more than a dollar per ride. 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.280 So they were saying this is representative of a business 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.480 that can scale and it will be profitable in the 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.720 long run. But there are investors who questioned this and 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:14.040 ask does it actually cost more to maintain, to repair, replace, 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.720 to ship over all these scooters, not to mention to 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.720 ensure them in some cases. Also in a lot of cities, 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.840 you have to apply for a permit to operate that 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.400 business within the city, which could be several thousand dollars. 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.800 All these costs start to add up, and if they 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.719 add up too much, then you cannot make money off 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.959 that business. You will just be constantly trying to raise 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:43.560 funds while you try to dial in your business plan 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:48.320 to complicate matters. There's all this competition in the field, 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.240 so if you were the only game in town, then 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.679 you could presumably start to raise the prices on the 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:59.280 per ride basis for your customers and they would either 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.160 pay that or they'd be walking or taking a bike 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.560 or taking a car everywhere because there's nowhere else to go. 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.400 But because you have all this competition in this space, 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:14.400 there's also the opportunity for these different services to kind 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.400 of undercut each other on price in the hopes of 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.240 waiting out their competitors and get them out of the market. 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.880 So if I'm running my own e scooter business and 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:31.600 I've got a decent enough cushion financially to land on, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.360 I might say, well, you can use my service, and 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:37.960 it's cheaper. So you can use the exact same sort 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.640 of scooters. They just have my branding on them. They 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.199 go the same speed. You will be able to use 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.840 them just as frequently as you would any other and 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:47.920 it's going to cost you less money. I might be 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.160 able to win over some of the other customers. They 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.200 might actually seek out my scooters as opposed to someone 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:57.520 else's and then exacerbate the problem of a company that's 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:03.360 already having some issues. Whether or not Bird really is 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:08.840 in financial trouble is a matter of debate. Uh, they 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.240 are looking to raise more money, they are the leader 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:16.680 in the space, and um, it's possible that everything's working 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.239 out just fine now. If in fact their new scooters 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.959 are more durable and they need you were repair and 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:28.160 maintenance costs, it might be fine. But it's one of 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:32.319 those questions that has remained unanswered in the investment world, 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.440 in the tech world, and it is entirely possible that 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.200 what we're seeing is just a scooter bubble and that 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:42.760 it's going to fizzle out, not because of any regulation issue, 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.960 but simply through an economic barrier that they can't surmount. 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:55.199 What is not in question is the the enthusiastic corresponse 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:59.280 among users on the East scooter market. I mean, it's 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.360 clear that they're a hit, so we know at least 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.640 there's a demand for it. The question is will the 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.800 demand and the supply workout, Will it with the economics 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.920 workout so that it makes sense to operate as a business. 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.720 That part remains to be seen. So that's one update, 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.480 is just the fact that we still don't know whether 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:23.280 or not this is this is a business that's going 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:27.199 to stick around. Uh. It also is, of course encountering 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:33.640 lots of potential resistance. Um that's tricky as well, because 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:38.520 laws are not uniform on the industry across the world, 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.280 let alone across not even in in in the country, 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.120 it's not even across the countries. So in the United States, 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:51.439 there's no federal law that mandates how these companies must perform. 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.280 How they must behave, or even how you must operate 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:57.800 an e scooter on US roads that falls to a 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:03.320 city by city basis, so we're talking city governments, which 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:07.199 means you might be following all the rules in Atlanta, 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.480 for example, when you rent one of these, and then 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.320 you may go visit another city like Austin, Texas, or 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.480 San Francisco, California, and you might not even be aware 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:21.240 that you're violating local laws because they're different. There there's 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:27.120 no unifying set of regulations and laws that oversee this, 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.040 so that makes it a very tricky situation as well. 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.600 Then you have places, like I said in London where 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.000 you can buy these e scooters, but technically you can't 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:39.960 write them anywhere, at least not in public, and uh, 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.800 that is causing confusion. Not everybody knows about this, and 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:48.480 there's a lot of questions about who is ultimately responsible 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:53.600 for learning all these things as up to the individual writers, 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.720 is it up to the companies. Most of these companies 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.160 have user agreements that you're supposed to click through or 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.680 you can actually rent one of the scooters, but we 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:08.320 all know nobody reads those agreements, and some of them 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.360 are incredibly long. One of them had more than eighteen 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:15.840 thousand words. That's too long if you're ready to rent 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:19.520 a scooter. I don't know anyone in Atlanta who is 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.280 going to put on their reading glasses and page through 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:27.400 eighteen thousand words in order to fully understand the agreement 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.400 that they are signing on too before they hop onto 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.160 a scooter and jet down the belt line. Anyway, that's 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.880 just the beginning of the challenges around East scooters. I'm 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.280 going to talk a little bit more about some of 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.920 the other issues in just a second, but first, let's 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:54.480 take a quick break. Okay, let's talk about some of 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:59.960 the challenges around scooters. Besides the fact about the confusion 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.120 around laws, we don't really know how the business model 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.600 is going to fan out. Let's talk about some of 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.559 the complaints a lot of people have, whether they are 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.560 people who are using these scooters or more likely the 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:14.319 people who aren't using the scooters, so grouchy old people 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:18.880 like me. Uh And I fully admit I'm a grouchy 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.360 old person who doesn't use scooters, and I have a 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.960 lot of thoughts about scooters in particular. Now, to get 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:26.600 it out of the way, I do think these scooters 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.480 are a good idea. I like the idea of people 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:33.680 having an alternative for that last mile problem of getting 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:37.520 around those short distances, and I would much prefer to 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.840 see them using something like a scooter than a car 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:48.160 to do that. But it's not really certain that that's 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:52.040 what people are doing. If people were in fact replacing 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:57.040 car rides with scooter rides, then you could argue this 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:02.560 is alleviating traffic issue. It's got a lower environmental impact, 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.560 it's kind of lower wear and tear impact on the infrastructure. 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.720 You would think of that as a good thing. But 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.720 according to at least some surveys, that doesn't appear to 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:15.800 be the way a lot of people are using these devices. 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:20.480 There was a survey and Raleigh, North Carolina where they 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:24.600 were asking people who were using the scooters why were 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.760 they using it, like, for what purpose? And about a 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.920 third of them answered that they were using them for 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.800 trips that they would otherwise use a car to do. 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:37.800 But two thirds of them we're using them for either 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.400 just you know, just to go out and have fun 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:42.960 on a scooter because they are fun to ride. That 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:45.640 they from what I understand, I haven't done it personally, 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.720 but you can really zoom around on those things, and 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:53.320 once you've got your balance, it's apparently pretty addicting to 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.520 go out there and just kind of have fun. So 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.040 there is an appeal there, so some people will just 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:01.640 ride them just to ride them. They're not riding them 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:03.200 in order to get from point A to point B. 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:08.200 It's all about the journey, not the destination. But that 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:12.440 means that you're not saving anything by doing it right. 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.320 You're not sparing the city another car ride. Maybe you 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.280 would have just stayed home instead of getting on that scooter. 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.280 In other cases, it may be that they were replacing 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:25.960 a trip that they would have otherwise taken, either by 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.880 foot or on bicycle. Well, here's the downside to that 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:35.400 is that, yes, E scooters have a lower curbon footprint 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.240 than a car, but they have a higher carbon footprint 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:44.400 than walking or bike riding. And this is where we 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:49.960 have to remember that environmental issues are very complicated. You 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:52.160 have to look at the big picture. You can't just 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.440 look at an individual action and then judge everything on that. 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.000 So in the case of EA scooters, you might say, well, 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:04.880 where's the carbon footprint? These are electronic scooters, They're using electricity, 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.639 they're not burning fossil fuels, so there's no exhaust that 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.240 you're giving out or anything like that. But you have 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.000 to look at the full picture of what it takes 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:19.080 for the East scooters to work, and that includes manufacturing, maintenance, repair, 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:24.159 and just the the operation of the business itself. So 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:28.679 let me explain that. With manufacturing, you're talking about, you know, 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:32.800 manufacturing the aluminum frames, you're talking about the lithium ion batteries, 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.000 which have their own environmental impact, and then you have 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.399 the shipping from overseas because almost all of these are 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.560 made in China, so there's that part that's also in 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:48.480 the overall carbon footprint for the scooters. Those ion batteries 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:52.240 apparently aren't the best. They have to be replaced every 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:56.080 three d to one thousand charges, sometimes less than that, 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:01.399 so a replacement typically is required every one to three months. 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.119 So we're going through these lithium ion batteries pretty quickly. 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:06.240 So you think about that every three months or so, 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:11.680 you're replacing the lithium ion batteries on your fleet of 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.120 of scooters. And if you have thousands of scooters, that's 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.400 thousands of these lithium ion batteries you have to ditch. Now, 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.200 ideally you would have to find some way to recycle 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.480 those because lithium ion batteries contains stuff in them that 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:27.920 you don't want to get out into the environment. In general, 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.120 you want to be responsible with how you dispose of those, 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:38.440 but electronic recycling is pretty limited. I've done episodes about 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.200 E recycling and how E waste is a huge problem. 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:45.960 It's very tricky. There are organizations out there that are 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:50.040 all about E recycling. Some of them are less than 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:56.639 um reliable or ethical. Uh. There have been reports of 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:01.000 recycling centers that end up just shipping everying overseas to 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:05.400 a different country where they'll handle it much more cheaply 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.520 than you would see here in America or in other 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:12.280 parts of of the world, and that ends up creating 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:16.240 its own problems. Really, you're just shipping this potentially hazardous 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.120 stuff to a different place and making those people deal 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.560 with it. So that's not great. On top of that, 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:25.679 the general operation of these eat scooters, especially that you know, 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.359 we're really talking about the dackless east scooters, the kinds 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.960 where you can pick up and ride and then drop 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:38.000 off wherever you want within the operating area of the service. UM. 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.480 A big problem with that is that at the beginning 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:42.760 of the day and at the end of the day, 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:45.600 you have crews going around. At the end of the day, 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.359 they're picking up scooters from all over the place and 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:50.639 bringing them back so they can be recharged. At the 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.320 beginning of the day, they're dropping them off in different locations, 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:58.560 um usually by the the high traffic of use. So 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:02.159 you'll see a lot more being delivered at places like 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.520 the belt line, for example, than in a corner on 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:09.320 my street where I live. There's we never see them there, 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:13.520 but they're always at the belt line. Um well, those 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.480 cars that are being operated, it's typically being operated by 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:20.800 private contractors who are working from their own personal vehicles, 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.760 and most of those are fueled by fossil fuels. So 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:28.920 you're still using cars with these scooters to deliver and 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.840 pick up all those scooters. And yeah, that's not the 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.320 direct operation of the scooter itself, but is in the 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.879 operation of the scooter business. So you still have to 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.840 count it with the carbon footprint for the business itself. 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.280 And you have to also factor into the idea that 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.960 those are car rides that wouldn't exist without those scooters, right, 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:52.840 I mean, the whole reason why the people are going 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:54.600 out there to pick them up or drop them off. 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.919 Is because the scooters. Without the scooters, there's no reason 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:01.439 for those trips, so those are added trips with a 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:06.760 fossil fuel burning vehicle that wouldn't have existed otherwise. The 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:10.960 bottom line is, at least according to some estimations, a 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.439 scooter ride creates about half the carbon footprint of a 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:18.440 car ride when you take in all the factors together, 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.000 and that to me is shocking. I I am very 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.960 curious to find out more about the methodology of determining 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:30.159 that figure. It is hard for me to believe that 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:33.680 it's that much. But with the requirement of replacing that 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.880 lithium ion battery every three months, maybe you know, when 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.760 you measure the length of the average lifespan of a scooter, 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:46.639 maybe that's how it all shakes out. Anyway, that's a 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.679 real drawback. That's a real challenge for these scooters is 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:52.879 that they're being marketed as eco friendly, but when you 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.600 take a closer look, you realize it's not that eco friendly, 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.480 at least not more so than walking or biking would be. 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:04.600 Assuming you're not riding a electric bike that would have 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:08.280 some of the same issues as an electric scooter. So 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:13.000 that's another issue. Beyond that, you've got all the things 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:17.760 that are irritating people, like the fact that you'll see 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.520 people using these dockless e scooters and then they'll just 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:24.200 drop them off wherever, either or not even parking them, 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.280 because I see them just laying down everywhere where no 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.680 one bothered to, you know, use little kickstand to keep 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:34.160 them standing up, or uh. Worse than that, they'll be 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.680 blocking sidewalks. So let me tell you another story, one 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.840 that is from personal experience. I was walking home not 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:46.320 very long ago when I saw about half a block 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.239 ahead of me there was a scooter that had been 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:54.080 left and it was essentially blocking about half the sidewalk. Now, 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:56.840 for me, that's not a big deal. Right when I 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:59.280 walk up there, I could just walk around it. But 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:02.200 between me and this scooter, also heading in the same 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.440 direction I was going, was a woman on who was 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.360 using an electric wheelchair. And so here's a woman who 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:14.959 is in a wheelchair that takes up a good amount 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.800 of the sidewalk and she's zoomed ahead of me. She 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:22.400 actually managed to maneuver around the scooter before I could 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:24.080 get to it. My plan was to run up there 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:26.000 and move it out all the way for her, but 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:29.280 she actually ended up going a little bit off the sidewalk, 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:33.200 off to the edge and around. Now that doesn't sound 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:35.400 like a big big deal either, but it had been 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:40.119 raining in Atlanta not long before that, and her wheel 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:42.520 was spinning for a little bit while she was trying 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:44.919 to get around this thing, so she had a possibility 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:48.360 of getting stuck out there. Um, and you start looking 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:50.480 at things like this and like this is just one 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:56.040 example in one day of how the scooter, which presented 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:59.080 a minor inconvenience to me, could be a real issue 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:02.040 for somebody else. This is something that a lot of 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.440 cities are trying to deal with right now. There's generally 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:08.640 rules and just about every city that has allowed these 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:13.560 businesses to operate about where you can and cannot leave 0:24:13.640 --> 0:24:16.720 these scooters. Not that I think most people are paying 0:24:16.800 --> 0:24:19.920 too much attention to it, because I never really see 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:25.159 a lot of adherence to those rules. That makes me 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:27.600 wonder if those rules are actually being communicated out to 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:29.760 the people who are using these scooters. I would like 0:24:29.840 --> 0:24:32.440 to think that most people would say, oh, you know what, 0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:34.399 that was fun, we had a good time. Let's just 0:24:34.440 --> 0:24:36.639 make sure these are tucked off to the side and 0:24:36.800 --> 0:24:42.040 we stand them up properly, rather than that was fun. 0:24:42.320 --> 0:24:44.479 This isn't mine. I don't care what happens to it. 0:24:44.560 --> 0:24:47.400 Let's just let it hit the ground and lay wherever 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:48.919 it is, and then we'll just keep on going on 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:52.480 our married a little way. Um, maybe that's me being 0:24:52.520 --> 0:24:56.720