Can remote-controlled scooters solve sidewalk clutter?

Plus, Lime adds a new vehicle, Uber pitches itself as a friend of transit, and SPAC rumors run wild in scooter world.

February 02, 2021

Hello and welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities that is enabled by small electric vehicles. The reason you’re reading this email is that you signed up on our website or came to one of our webinars or events.

If you’re not a subscriber and you want to keep getting the latest news and analysis from inside the micromobility movement delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here for free. If you’d like to unsubscribe, just click that link.

Thank you for reading.

“Absolutely humbled, and excited, about the feedback and interest that the micromobility community demonstrated towards Fleet Shield last week. We have 40+ conversations lined up with operators of all shapes and sizes, and cannot wait to deliver an insurance solution that will help them all.” - Jonathan Selby, General Manager.

Big thanks

Thank you to everyone who came to our first all-digital event last week, Micromobility World, and made it our largest gathering ever.

For three days, world-renowned thinkers from Janette Sadik-Khan to Benedict Evans mixed with vetted startups, like Super73, Vanmoof, Taur, Nimbus, and eSkootr, for provocative, thoughtful discussions about the future of urban mobility. All told, more than 3,000 entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and enthusiasts took part.

There was tons of breaking news, some of which can be found below.

In the coming days, replays of most sessions will be made available to watch on-demand. To start, we’re releasing Pecha Kucha videos from five exciting micromobility startups we think are going to make a splash, which we’ve peppered into the email below.

We look forward to continuing to advocate for and accelerate this community’s growth, both virtually and in-person post-vaccine. Thank you for coming with us on this ride.

Illustration: Julia Steier

What you need to know this week

  • First, the big (SUV-sized) news: GM has promised to go all-electric by 2035. While we don’t cover the auto industry much in this newsletter, this unprecedented pivot from a top American manufacturer is a good reminder that change happens slow then fast.

  • Bird and Lime are both rumored to be considering SPACs after a tough year that saw ridership and revenue plummet due to lockdown. People familiar with the matter say Bird is already close to finalizing a deal to raise more than $100M in convertible debt, led by existing investors Sequoia Capital and Valor Equity Partners.

  • One possible moat for Tesla vs larger automakers that are now embracing EVs: charging infrastructure.

  • At Micromobility World, Spin announced its first teleoperations pilot is launching in Boise. Relying on three-wheeled, AI-enabled hardware from Segway and remote positioning software from Tortoise, Spin teleoperators will be able to move illegally parked scooters from anywhere in the world. Eventually, users will be able to hail a scooter, which will travel up to several blocks to their location. “If this Spin scooter gets even 25% more rentals per day than their standard fleet, they’re going to shift their fleet as quickly as possible,” said Tortoise chief Dmitry Shevelenko. But even if remote-controlled scooters don’t increase ridership, they should at least allay regulators’ concerns about sidewalk clutter—the pervasive problem of scooters blocking a sidewalk, crosswalk or handicapped space—potentially opening the door for Spin to win more city permits.

  • VIDEO: Why owning is better than renting scooters w/ Taur

  • Here’s everything we know so far about Ola’s electric moped.

  • President Biden is calling on the federal government to purchase more EVs.

  • Finally, we are proud to announce Micromobility Industries is embarking on a media partnership with eSkootr, the world’s first racing championship for electric scooters. Not only are we giddy about the prospect of someday watching a high-speed urban scooter race, we’re also excited about motorsports as a driver of technical innovation and mainstream appeal for micromobility. Big things ahead.

Jobs to be done

Welcome to our jobs board, where every week we post open positions in hopes of connecting our readers with professional opportunities in the burgeoning world of new mobility. Find out who’s hiring below and sign up for the newsletter to view fresh listings every week.

Hit reply if you have a job that you’re interested in listing.