Madrid gives Lime, Wind, and VOI 72 hours to remove their scooters from the streets. City blames companies for their users not reading and/or obeying city usage rules. LINK
- FLASHBACK: After removing all scooters from their streets, Santa Monica will allow a few scooters companies back …. for an annual fee of $20,000 plus a $130 fee per-device per year. LINK
H/T Teo Ortega via LinkedIn
How to convert a Bird / Lime scooter share into a never have to share scooter for $32 in 3 easy steps:
- “Borrow” a Bird / Lime off the street
- Buy this $32 kit on eBay from China
- Replace their board with said Chinese board
H/T @NickAbouzeid & @Jim Gibbs via our Slack Group.
… or you can buy this sad looking Bird at a Texas police auction for 25 Bucks (two-wheel barrel tires pictured not included) LINK
Car Sharing … China Style. More than 200 electric car manufacturers, including Tesla, Daimler, GM, Nissan, NIO (you get the picture) are sharing precise location data with Chinese Government monitoring centers. Companies who don’t act shocked at the question and say, “We know nothing,” honestly say “it’s the cost of doing business in China.” LINK
- FLASHBACK: In China, jaywalking could land you on a no-fly list. A new scoring system is keeping a critical eye on social behavior. A MUST WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK
In China, you can get a loan if you allow the lender to secretly install a tracking device somewhere in your car. If you don’t pay, someone will come in the middle of the night and “borrow” your car. China. LINK
Q: How does the police pull over a sleeping driver in a self-driving car going 113 KM/H (that’s 70 for my American amigos)?
A: Pull in front to slow it down and activate the driver-assist program. LINK
- FLASHBACK: Every new car in Europe may be fitted with a police-controlled kill switch LINK
New York City forces Uber, Lyft, Via, Juno, and Gett to pay their drivers $26.51 an hour in gross pay, even if they are driving without passengers in the car. When a driver has to drop someone far outside the city, the rules will mandate that companies pay higher to compensate the driver for the return trip. LINK
- FLASHBACK: New York City becomes the first major U.S. city to issue a cap on ride-hail vehicles but London could be next LINK
New Zealand town launches a new ride-sharing service to get locals to and from the ferry terminal. Passengers pay $2.50 for a $16.50 ride. Townsfolk decry $14 per ride subsidy as “ludicrous”. LINK
Careem launches bus-booking service in Egypt as an alternative to Swvl. The launch comes more than a year after Careem performs due diligence to make a $500K investment in Swvl. Careem said it had since divested itself of that stake. LINK
12 hours later, Uber launches bus-booking service in Egypt as an alternative to Careem & Swvl. LINK
The Information and the Financial Times reported over the weekend that Uber has held talks with Bird, the scooter-sharing startup founded by former Uber VP of International Growth, about a multibillion-dollar acquisition deal. LINK
- FLASHBACK: Kalanick testified that he wanted to hire the then-Google engineer at the center of the case, Anthony Levandowski, as early as 2015. “I wanted to hire Anthony and he wanted to start a company, so I tried to come up with a situation where he could feel like he started a company and I could feel like I hired him,” Kalanick said. LINK
Lyft announced the winners of the 4th annual Lyftie Awards, an awards program that celebrates the businesses and points of interest with the most Lyft passenger drop-offs throughout the year. My favorite award goes to “Most Gentrified Neighborhood in NYC” Congrats, Jefftown LINK
