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Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

theatlantic.com

101–110 of 243 posts

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#101
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going forward we'll have to figure out how to tax electricity used for charging electric cars(probably special chargers that have a car-taxed tariff).

Why? We're still in the phase of giving out huge subsidies for them. More likely would be a general weight-miles tax to cover repairing the roads.

How much money do we pay to keep the middle east from devolving into all-out war and keeping a stable oil price?

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#102
post #40

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.

the lack of strict regulations is one of the reasons start-up businesses flourish in the US. Although I am pro-regulation in some issues, I think that European style pain-in-the-ass regulations only hinder technological advancement. Would UBER ever be successful in Europe? Nope.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#103
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I could not imagine buttoned down European city like Vienna or even a messy one like Amsterdam allowing it) I don't really see benefit over a bike. Except that bikes don't require charging.

The main one would be that you are a pedestrian rather than a road user. People who take bikes along sidewalks and footpaths are a hazard but a scooter is less of an issue. Also, less skill to ride and less risk.

These electric scooters travel at speeds that exceed that of an average cyclist. They are not pedestrian friendly and they have no place on sidewalks. Usually you see them only on roads, bike paths or shared spaces where cars and pedestrians are both allowed, though. At least in vienna.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#104
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

the lack of strict regulations is one of the reasons start-up businesses flourish in the US. Although I am pro-regulation in some issues, I think that European style pain-in-the-ass regulations only hinder technological advancement. Would UBER ever be successful in Europe? Nope.

...uber is successful in Europe. There are cities that banned it, but there are as many that didn't.

Conversely, Uber is not very successful in South-East Asia, but not for the abundance of regulation but for the lack of it - Grab, a local copy-paste of Uber, has become so dominant that Uber had to leave most of the markets there

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#105
post #14

I love how you can see the original less-clickbait headlines of 'Who charges those electric bird scooters?' in the title tag and 'charging-electric-scooters-is-a-cutthroat-business' in the url.

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?"

I'd assume that google actually penalizes title mismatches like that

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#106
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an awesome example of how tricky it is to innovate and regulate towards cleaner environmental behaviour.

Tax the fuel to cover the total externalities

Doesn't work if it's teens converting family money into personal money. That is a situation with some surprising similarities to money laundering.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going forward we'll have to figure out how to tax electricity used for charging electric cars(probably special chargers that have a car-taxed tariff).

Why? Does electricity used by cars have more externalities than electricity used by a washing machine?

Washing machines don't use roads.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#108

Dunno about the way charging works, at least long term. Scooter sharing through, that's kind of promising. Beijing (and other cities) have proven that bike sharing can become a major transport type if the city will allow bike sharing companies to just dump bikes all over the sidewalk. It's crude, but it at least let's us see how far bike sharing can go if/when stations are a non-problem. Besides the mess (I could not…

>I could not imagine buttoned down European city like Vienna or even a messy one like Amsterdam allowing it) I don't really see benefit over a bike. Except that bikes don't require charging.

I see a lot of benefits. They are more comfortable than bicycles and may therefore appeal to users who wouldn't give up their car for a bicycle. They require far less space than cars and have the potential to reduce rush hour traffic jams.

I'll stick with my bicycle but I'm happy for anyone who uses an electric scooter, rather than a car.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#109
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

the lack of strict regulations is one of the reasons start-up businesses flourish in the US. Although I am pro-regulation in some issues, I think that European style pain-in-the-ass regulations only hinder technological advancement. Would UBER ever be successful in Europe? Nope.

I don't think that Uber was a good example of a good company hindered by regulations...

The pain-in-the-ass regulations also save a lot of people's time and money (Theranos-style startups are much less likely to pop-up over this side of the Atlantic also).

It's a trade-off, like most things in life.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#110

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).

I think some better vetting of hunters and maybe capping the amount of people for area's to hunt for them would be a start? Seems now it's a wild west when it comes to who gets at them first.
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