Bird is a new electric scooter startup that rents electric scooters to customers on mobile apps by deploying locators on urban sidewalks. To put it simply, Bird is the "shared bike" of the United States, or, more accurately, the "shared electric scooter". The company, founded by UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC and a former executive of Lyft, launched an electric scooter service in San Francisco two weeks ago. The company says it is determined to ensure that everything goes well in negotiations with city officials.

Unfortunately, it failed.

On the morning of Monday, April 16, San Francisco City Hall issued a warning letter to Bird and two other electric scooter companies, LimeBike and Spin. City prosecutor Dennis Herrera wrote in a warning letter that the actions of the three companies were "detrimental to the public interest and illegal." He said San Francisco City Hall had been warning the three companies for weeks. Herrera also made a list of rectification for the three companies and asked them to submit a written report on the progress of rectification at the end of the month.

The upsurge of capital

Thanks to an influx of venture capital, "shared bikes" and "shared scooters" are spreading across American cities, and policy makers are scrambling to find ways to manage the surging number of scooters. The San Francisco city council passed a bill on Tuesday requiring electric scooter rental companies to obtain city permits; the transportation department in Austin, Texas, also showed lawmakers plans to manage scooters on Tuesday and called for an emergency vote on Thursday. In Washington, D.C., a pilot program to license electric scooters and bicycle rental companies is also defined as "about to expire."

The two largest companies in the US scooter market are Bird and LimeBike. Both companies have raised more than $100 million in financing in the past six months, with beautiful slogans of "solving urban congestion" and "reducing dependence on cars." LimeBike also rents bikes, just like Uber, which joined the competition through the acquisition of Jump Bikes.

Unavoidable problems

But the problems caused by scooters soon became difficult to ignore. Apart from the congestion caused by the parking of scooters and bicycles, and the randomly discarded "shared cars" also bring new problems in urban governance, there are no regulations to regulate and regulate the wearing of helmets. All in all, shared scooters not only generate a large number of convenient services for some users, but also trouble people who do not use such services.

This seems to be an excellent example of the "unrestrained" and "arrogant" characteristics of the technology industry.

As service providers, Bird and LimeBike have made it clear that they are committed to working with city officials to solve their problems. Bird unveiled a possible solution to the parking problem on Tuesday. The new rule requires users to take a picture of the parking spot after ending the ride. David Estrada, Bird's chief legal officer, said the company was likely to apply the rule to major cities, but declined to provide details.

Uber in the past, Bird in the present

In the process of repeated negotiations with the government, it annoys many people who have experienced it, and it also reminds us of the "controversial" Uber. In San Francisco, the process of expressing opinions on scooter riding is essentially a long-term vote on "cultural traditions invaded by technology". On the one hand, supporters of scooters sing that scooters are cheap and convenient, and on the other hand, they promise to ease traffic pressure and air pollution. But opponents point out that they "travel through the city in a funny way, at the expense of crowded and dangerous sidewalks".

A similar situation is inevitable for ride-hailing services. Uber often meets with local officials from places of origin and new cities. Santa Monica, Calif., where Bird is headquartered, finally reached an agreement to let Bird continue to operate after filing a complaint against Bird.

Perhaps the current controversy over scooters will be a fierce collision on the road to the transformation of urban transportation, where people use their mobile phones to find electric scooters for short rides and to hail taxis for long distances. and spend less time on the vehicles they actually own. Despite strong protests from some citizens, city officials do not intend to beat these services to death. For electric scooter companies, the main problems are parking restrictions and the number of vehicles covered. "We need to grow big enough to get cars off the road," Estrada said. "

(this article is produced by Futu Information compilation team, compiled / Shen Yiwen, proofread / Chen Lixing)