Page 55 - Fortune-November 01, 2018

TECH
FOCUS

of freelance workers, some of these billion-
dollar businesses would fold. But the job, if
not the entire business, is still in its infancy, ELECTRICSCOOTERS…BYTHENUMBERS
and its effects on the local community remain
to be seen. Under cover of night, scooter char- Six things you need to know about an explosive new logistics
gers compete with one another in a gamified business that’s sweeping across the globe. —L.S.
gig for which the rules are hazy at best.
Some scooter chargers have faced violence.
Devlin, for example, says he called the police $3.1B 10,000 70%
after he was physically and verbally assaulted The combined Number of Juicers, U.S. city slickers
by a fellow charger who believed Devlin was valuation of in 42 cities and who have a
gaming the system. Deedee Deschanel, a Bird and Lime, counting, who positive outlook on
29-year-old video producer, wears a bullet- which together have signed up electric scooters,
proof vest stocked with pepper spray when he have raised to charge Lime according to a
goes Bird hunting on Saturday nights in Santa $882million scooters for money survey by Populus
Monica. “You never know,” he says. in funding
And for women like Brooke Thompson,
who goes out at night, often alone, with a
minivan to pick up scooters in the beach 1,263 1
town, the darker hours can be daunting. She 14.3M
says she’s been catcalled, even stalked, on the Citations issued to Number of known
job in the wee hours of the morning. “It’s fun Miles traveled by e-scooter riders, e-scooter fatalities
being out,” she says, “but as a woman, I’m a bit Bird riders (during across more than (a Dallas man died
after falling sans
15,000 stops, by
more vulnerable too.” 10 million rides) as the Santa Monica helmet from a Lime
Electric scooters are a mixed bag for the of the company’s Police Department scooter, according
first anniversary
cities in which they are deployed. Though in 2018 to date to police).
many riders appreciate them, some residents
are less keen, seeing them as an eyesore
and a nuisance. The companies’ launch
tactics have also drawn scrutiny. In Santa
Monica, Bird burst on the scene in 2017—the ply of Juicers with demand for its scooters in a
company is headquartered there—without given community. As for Bird, a spokesperson
permission from the local government. The says the company’s program can be a “great
city eventually sued; Bird agreed to pay a source” of supplemental income for its free-
$300,000 fine. Even today, the anger over lance chargers.
the incident hasn’t entirely abated; on a Unlike Bird and Lime, Lyft—which only de-
recent stroll in Santa Monica, a Bird scooter ployed its Santa Monica fleet of electric scoot-
was vandalized to read “TURD.” ers in September—uses full-time employees
Thompson says she’s felt the heat firsthand. for recharging. It does help reduce some of the
She’s received glares, snide remarks, and competitiveness, says Caroline Samponaro,
complaints about Bird when she’s out collect- head of bike, scooter, and pedestrian policy at
ing scooters for money. Devlin’s 11-year-old the San Francisco company: “We can’t control
son avoided telling friends that his father par- operational excellence if we aren’t in control.”
ticipated in Bird’s scooter bounty program; Which charging system is better, and which
the name has “a certain amount of negativ- startup will prevail in the Great Scooter Wars
ity,” the father says. “It’s like saying, ‘My dad of 2018 and beyond? Ask the chargers them-
works at the DMV.’” selves, and the bigger picture becomes clear.
“We found that Juicers enjoy the flexibil- “There’s no doubt that Bird chargers won’t
ity of an hour or two of work in the evening exist in the near future,” says Devlin, pointing
and working in the morning,” says Colin to the inevitability of technological progress.
McMahon, who leads Lime’s Juicer program. “But I don’t know that I’ll ever retire. I love
He adds that the company correlates its sup- working. I hope I never have to stop.”

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