I wonder if the company is asking these teens, during the registration as contractors, if they have permission from their parents to charge all those scooters at home. I can imagine several parents getting angry for excessive increments in the electricity bills every month without having a clue about their children's "business". Of course, many of them will probably find the scooters in the garage in a regular mornin…
I'm not sure if it's a requirement, but all of the individuals quoted in the article were over 18.
I wonder if the company is asking these teens, during the registration as contractors, if they have permission from their parents to charge all those scooters at home. I can imagine several parents getting angry for excessive increments in the electricity bills every month without having a clue about their children's "business". Of course, many of them will probably find the scooters in the garage in a regular mornin…
If you think about it, the scooter must stop scootering before 100% battery depletion to allow for the location electronics adequate life.
How do you know that the tag contains the "original" headline? It seems to be more tailored for SEO, i.e. to attract the people who wonder (and then Google), "Who charges the electric scooters?"
Never thought about that. Do they really do different titles for different entry points? The webarchive supports that this has always been the title. https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.theatlantic.com/te...
For a popular article that will earn a lot of links its also a good strategy to change the title multiple times during its viral phase.
Since many people/cm systems link with the title tag it means you get a wider mix of anchor text which can help the article to rank for a more diverse set of key phrases
I want to hear more about Bird's business model. How can it be worthwhile for them to give hundreds of dollars out to have the scooters charged? What do people pay for using the scooters? As per the article, it also seems incentives are not quite thought out yet, so people can grab the $20 "hard-to-find" fee reasonably easily. It sounds like you can have a friend stash them until the fee goes up, then go and collect…
> Riders can locate and unlock scooters using the company’s smartphone app, and after paying the $1 unlocking fee are charged 15 cents per minute during use.
Back of the napkin calculations suggest that, in order to break even just from the charging costs alone, each scooter needs to be ridden for at least 2 and a half hours. Based on some quick googling (but without taking into account the terrain and the rider's weight and riding style), a scooter with a full load can be ridden for about 6 hours.
I'm surprise they haven't tried old school kick powered scooters with an additional electronic GPS unit: http://goped.com/know-ped/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtn5kg3ZH3M Or something like this: Micro PedalFlow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfIzZo6ouDo It would reduce the speed concerns too.
The speed might be a concern, but it's a selling point too. As is the lack of effort. Plus there's a goofiness value in kick-scooting.
I hope this scooter thing takes off in all cities, what a great idea to move people more effectively and also bring down the cost of battery cells so I can buy a tesla.
We might have finally found something that fat americans can tolerate that's not a hummer h1.
Bird talk about making transportation more environmentally friendly, yet it turns out people are driving the scooters to and from their locations every day... it wouldn't be surprising if the scooters are traveling more miles in the back of a gas powered vehicle than they do each day in actual rides.
Man, the gig economy is getting pretty surreal. Wait until the food delivery guys get on electric longboards. YT from Snow Crash might be a relatable character for my kids...
I mean, they already rent electric Scooter mopeds...
Doesn't seem at all out of control. Seems like an awesome idea and the process needs to be refined to dissuade bad behavior. Considering the company was founded about a year ago is probably a lot of room for improvements and innovation (and angering your contractors in the process).
Is it legal in US to use electricity at home for business purposes? In some countries that's against contract with electricity provider, as they have different tariffs for business.