A new wave of electric-scooter rental start-ups is facing a legal reckoning, as city authorities across the US race to tame the “dockless” two-wheelers that have flooded their streets. New regulations proposed in several cities could place a cap on the number of scooters a single company can operate, as regulators demand that fast-growing start-ups Bird, Limebike and Spin do more to educate and police their customers about safety. The companies have launched thousands of app-controlled, GPS-tracked electric scooters across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and other US cities, with riders able to pick them up and drop them off wherever they like. Fuelled by hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital, the start-ups are racing to launch in as many cities as quickly as possible. “There is a very strong first-mover advantage,” said Brad Bao, co-founder of San Mateo-based Limebike, which is looking to raise tens of millions of dollars in new funding.
The tactics have invited comparison to another recent transportation revolution. When Uber and Lyft were starting out, they charged into new cities to seize market share, leaving local authorities scrambling to figure out how booking cars should be regulated. Even some tech investors have bemoaned the scooter companies’ tactics. “The ‘simply ask forgiveness’ playbook sure feels very 2014 and out of step with where we want our tech values to settle post-‘bro’,” Hunter Walk, of early-stage venture fund Homebrew, wrote in a blog post last week, referring to the “tech bro” moniker given to a more aggressive kind of geek. Advocates for the services argue that nippy electric scooters provide an environmentally friendly and low-cost addition to local transport options, especially for short journeys. Many consumers seem to agree: customers of Bird, which was first to launch an electric scooter service in Santa Monica seven months ago, have ridden more than 1m miles.