
Taxify is entering the e-scooter game - mariushn
https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/05/taxify-is-entering-the-e-scooter-game/
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andrewla
This is definitely a time when I'm annoyed to be a New Yorker -- we're shut
out of all of these developments. We committed to Citibike (provided by
Motivate), and now we're stuck trying to protect the granted monopoly by
shutting out all the dockless e-bikes and electric scooters in favor of the
overpriced incumbent.

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ihuman
How come Citibike stops New York from having dockless alternatives? DC has the
Capital Bikeshare docked bike system (also by Motivate), but still has
rentable dockless bikes and electric scooters.

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_ph_
I am looking forward to watch how this develops. I think small electric
vehicles have a huge future to reduce traffic congestions and pollution. With
small electric vehicles, I think of all new mobility enabled by the progress
with battery technogoly, ranging from e-Bikes, Segways, e-Scooters to whatever
else might be invented. E-Scooters look like great devices for the typical
short distances in urban regions.

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CompelTechnic
I am really excited to see whether this business model is sustainable or not.

I have found it interesting that some of my left-leaning friends oppose these
scooters on the grounds of them being a public nuisance. For anyone who wants
to curb global warming, these scooters are a darn good way to do it. The
tradeoffs are easily worth it. Some people want to act like the tradeoffs
don't exist/ if they just wish for something hard enough, the solution that
has no tradeoffs will appear, despite institutional inertia.

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ams6110
I have to say I think the impact of scooters on global warming will be nil if
not negative.

Those little stand-up electric scooters mostly substitute for walking, not
driving. And in that sense they are worse for global warming because they
actually use electricity, in many places generated by coal.

And consider the warming impact of making the things. Metal forging, paint,
tires, batteries, electronics.

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bradknowles
Agreed, scooters (and skateboards) replace walking, not biking or driving.

IMO, they’re also an Attractive Nuisance, in the legal sense of the term. They
encourage people to ride them who are not adequately trained or equipped, by
virtue of their stunningly low price and easy availability. Then those people
are much more likely to hurt themselves or someone else, thus driving up trips
to the ER and local healthcare costs.

The old method of drug dealers giving away the “first hit for free” seems to
be very apropos here.

If the scooter companies were required to provide health and liability
insurance for every rider, and get a hefty fine every time one of their riders
was seen using the sidewalk and/or not wearing a helmet, at least those costs
would not be externalized on society.

The original Segway device had large wheels that were set horizontally, and
incorporated software and hardware to make them as stable as possible. We’ve
thrown out all of those advantages in the name of chasing a “cheaper” device.

Disclaimer: I am currently recovering from my own accident from riding a
scooter, and so I may be a bit biased. Or maybe That gives me a unique insight
that many others in this discussion do not. You decide.

~~~
dragonwriter
> IMO, they’re also an Attractive Nuisance, in the legal sense of the term.
> They encourage people to ride them who are not adequately trained or
> equipped, by virtue of their stunningly low price and easy availability.

That's...not the legal sense of “attractive nuisance”, which refers to an
object on land likely to attract children which makes the landowner legally
responsible for injuries by the object to trespassing children so attracted in
circumstances in which they otherwise would not be, provided the children are
unable to understand the hazard posed.

At best, you are referring to a very loose analogy to the legal sense of the
term.

> Then those people are much more likely to hurt themselves or someone else,
> thus driving up trips to the ER and local healthcare costs.

I understand the intuitive attractiveness of this, but is there any empirical
evidence for it?

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mmjaa
I've been using the local Electric Moped rental to get around my large
metropolitan city, and I have to say it is really delightful to use and
experience. I have all the best parts of having a moped to use, without any of
the ownership issues. Of course, it helps that the provider has deployed
thousands of the things .. but with every ride I'm ever more convinced this is
the future of transportation. Easy to use electric rentals, just great ..

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rubidium
Even if the scooter craze crashes and burns (either due to regulations,
insustainable business model, or lack of sustained customer demand aka here
comes winter) it's gotta be helping drive down prices to manufacture and
improving electric scooters and bikes technology. Scooter rental isn't super
appealing for my use case, but buying one to use for commuting now is much
more attainable than even 5 years ago.

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kawfey
I know a person who works on Bird's freight team, they apparently have been
moving 2 full Boeing 747s of scooters (I estimate that to be about
12,000-14,000 based on weight) every day from China, at one point about $150 a
pop). I think it's a sustainable model because after being shipped, delivered,
and released (estimating about $80 more per scooter), it's ridden until dead
every day on average 10 times (1.43mi/ride average, range 15mi average),
earning it $10 plus $0.15/min, or ~$23.50/day. It breaks even after 7 rides,
and they have at least 20 rides in them before they're toast.

I haven't factored in other parts of the economy, like oversupply, theft,
premature damage, and payroll for the employees including chargers, but seeing
they're in 100 cities with at least 3 million scooters on the streets being
ride. I also based my guesses from
[https://www.bird.co/blog/birdyearone](https://www.bird.co/blog/birdyearone).

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dlhavema
> and they have at least 20 rides in them before they're toast.

are you saying the scooters electric part dies after 20 rides?

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gnicholas
I think kawfey meant that in a given day, each scooter can be ridden 20 times
before the battery is depleted. I don't think this was a description of the
lifetime of the battery — just its daily capacity.

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toastal
I know it's a combination of 'taxi' and '-ify', but it reads too much like
'tax' and '-ify'. Taxes generally have a negative or necessary evil
connotation which doesn't seem like a great company name. It's a good thing
the scooters are not slated to go to the US, where 'taxes' are a four-letter
word, or they might end up in the Boston harbor.

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overcast
Exactly my first inclination reading the headline. Why is a tax company
entering the e-scooter game? Unfortunate naming.

I'm guessing they'd like everyone to pronounce them as taksēfi, not taksifi

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fyfy18
As the article mentioned they aren’t a new company, they are the #1 ride
hailing app in a lot of European cities.

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malandrew
In which cities is it #1?

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krn
Taxify is huge (read: bigger than Uber) in the Baltics (Lithuania, Latvia,
Estonia) and in some African countries (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa). It
mostly focuses on Eastern European, Western Asian and African markets, where
there is no single major player.

