America’s main scooter supplier is investing in autonomy

August 15, 2019

This week, Uber’s best bet is its “other bets,” Skip has a new whip, and e-bike riders are in fantastic shape, but first…

When People Ask Why the Next Event Is in Europe…

For all the ink spilt this week about the electric Ford F-150’s ability to tow a damn train (quick q: why?), ebikes are still thrashing EVs in sales in Europe.

Because in a largely urban society, most people don’t need a big metal box to make the majority of their trips, no matter how benign that box is for the planet. In fact, most people prefer not to spend a significant part of their income on a machine that gets stuck in traffic, is hard to park, and worsens the quality of life in their community,

Europe gets it. And if you come to Micromobility Europe, you’ll get it too.

Get your tickets now and save €240 off the General Admission price, then join us in Berlin on October 1 for the largest-ever event focused on first-and-last-mile transportation. (Early Agenda here.)

Listen Up

In the latest episode of the podcast, Oliver Bruce interviews Tier CEO and cofounder, Lawrence Leuschner, about the European micromobility landscape and why, with a clamp down on scooters looming in Paris, he thinks Germany is the most promising market on the continent.

Listen here, and catch Leuschner live onstage at #MME as part of the Micromobility Executives Roundtable.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Segway-Ninebot, the single-largest supplier of e-scooters in the United States, is expected to announce autonomy this week. How far along they are and what this means for fleet operators, only time will tell. | Tony Ho

  • A new study finds that breathing the air in some American cities is so bad for you, “the results are similar to smoking a pack of cigarettes daily for three decades.” What’s driving all that pollution? *cough* cars *cough* | FastCo 

  • Uber lost $5.2 billion in Q2, although $3.9 billion of that total went to one-time payouts related to its IPO. | Jalopnik

  • … there was at least one bright spot in the transportation giant’s earnings report. Its “other bets” category, including micromobility and freight, is booming. | James Gross

  • … which is why multimodal offerings may be essential to the company’s long-term profitability. Uber sees cities like Denver, where users can order everything from bike rentals to bus tickets in the app, as its future. | NYT

  • Washington, D.C. has become something of a bellwether for understanding which micromobility technology is going to take off next. The city’s transportation officials embraced dockless e-bikes and scooters early, in 2017, approved a moped-sharing pilot last week, and are now looking into tricycles and e-cargo bikes. | WaPo

  • Berlin is considering new regulations to govern the approximately 6,000 dockless e-scooters that have hit its streets since June, including creating geofences around tourist hotspots, requiring providers to offer in-app safety training, and converting car parking spots into micromobility corrals. | RBB

  • From GM to Peugeot, legacy automakers are starting to get serious about lightweight electric vehicles. | Business Insider

  • Vélosophy is making a bike that is composed entirely out of old Nespresso pods. | FastCo

  • After four scooter riders were killed by cars this year, the mayor of Atlanta has issued an executive order banning people from using dockless vehicles at night. Outraged activists are calling for a “CARfew” instead. | Curbed

  • Bike-share programs across the U.S. are going electric. As of this month, 41 out of the 192 American cities that have a system offer ebikes. | U.S. News & World Report

  • Salt Lake City may soon become the first U.S. city with free public transit. | Streetsblog

  • Bird and Lime are piloting their first e-scooter trials in Japan. | Nikkei

  • Scooter-sharing operator Skip has unveiled a ruggedized model, the S3, which features a swappable battery, wider deck, bigger tires, and what is perhaps the thickest set of handlebars anywhere on the market. The S3 will deploy in San Francisco in October, which suggests the company is confident the city will renew its permit when it expires that same month. | VentureBeat

  • … as well, Skip scooters will return to D.C. following a recall prompted by a battery fire in June. | TechCrunch

  • Speed pedelec sales are picking up steam in the Netherlands, possibly as a result of changes in EU regulations. | Bike EU

  • Cleveland is backpedaling on its ban of dockless bikes and scooters. The city has invited four providers, Bird, Lime, Spin, and Veloride, to reintroduce free-floating two-wheelers after they were outlawed last year. | Plain Dealer

  • A new study finds that people who ride e-bikes get as much exercise as people who ride regular bikes. | TreeHugger

  • Mobility as marketing? The German digital bank N26 has inked a deal with Lime whereby its customers get 50% off rides for four months in more than 10 European countries. Related: here’s a country-by-country breakdown of where e-scooter policy stands across Europe. | Sifted

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