Ford Buying San Francisco-Area E-Scooter Startup Spin

Post by dzhiurgis » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:45 AM UTC

tigershark wrote: post #219

dublidu wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve clearly not lived in San Francisco. My 3 mile commute takes 45 minutes by bus. It’s only a 30 minute bike or scooter ride.

I don’t think that bus can ever be defined as “good public transport” in a dense metropolitan area. Trains or light rails are probably what gp was speaking about.

Post by dzhiurgis » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:52 AM UTC

justchilly wrote: post #179

the_watcher wrote: post #6

I used Bird, Lime, Lyft, and Jump scooters over the weekend in LA and they were great for getting around when I'd have otherwise considered driving (over a 45 minute walk). I tried a Skip scooter again when I got back to SF, and once again, it simply could not handle a minor (for SF) hill. I don't know what the solution is, since it seems like a bad idea to power them more to handle hills given the dangers that would…

The old Bird and Lime scooters had 250W motors. The new Skip scooters have 350W (plus suspension which is nice). The skips can get to a walking pace up to ~10% grade, but grind to a halt anywhere near Nob/Russian Hill. You need at least 750W to do the trick. They also all have just a single break, which makes going down those hills dangerous.

Post by mjg59 » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 9:54 AM UTC

dzhiurgis wrote: post #321

mjg59 wrote: post #180

Of the scooter companies that have launched in the Bay area, Spin were by far the least technically advanced - the scooters were basically unmodified Xiaomis, to the extent of still having power buttons. Rather than an integrated location and management system, location data came from a off-the-shelf GPS tracker spliced off the battery lines. Since the scooter control board had no cellular link, there was no mechanis…

Was thinking about locking mechanism for scooters and thought perhaps ultrasonic signal could make this even simpler over Bluetooth. Of course in this case the problem is lack of feedback from scooter on lock state.

Post by justchilly » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 11:20 PM UTC

twoheadedboy wrote: post #214

justchilly wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The old Bird and Lime scooters had 250W motors. The new Skip scooters have 350W (plus suspension which is nice). The skips can get to a walking pace up to ~10% grade, but grind to a halt anywhere near Nob/Russian Hill. You need at least 750W to do the trick. They also all have just a single break, which makes going down those hills dangerous.

What about Jump bikes? Because they go up hills pretty easily. Not the steepest ones but I get around pretty well with them in my neighborhood, which has lots of hills.