E-scooter company Bird is seeking to raise around $200 million in new funding at a $2 billion valuation.This would be just weeks after it raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation, and only three months after raising at a $300 million valuation. [...]
Axios also has learned more about the make-up of a new $250 million funding round for Bird rival Lime, at a $750 million valuation:
And as the rat's milk returns to the sewer, Andreessen is there:
Deal lead GV is committing around $50 million, as is new investor IVP and return backer Andreessen Horowitz.
GV parent company Alphabet also is committing around $50 million.
I'm still waiting for someone to publish a proper tear-down on these soon-to-be-landfill scooters and what you can build from them. I've even had a reporter ask me if I'd heard of such a tear-down yet. But, nope.
Has anyone done the sums on whether these things are physically plausible? The companies are kind of vague, but Lime said it had a 250W motor: that's perhaps a plausible peak power as I think a reasonably fit human can reasonably sustain maybe 150W (racing cyclists can sustain 400W for an hour, but they're not 'reasonably fit). So perhaps it might consume 100W average: how physically big a battery does it need to do that for any length of time, and is that enough power to get it and a human around? What's the lifetime of the battery?
Uh, whether these things exist are actually being ridden is not really in question here...
Ah, OK, I hadn't realised they were actually in use (as far as I know they're not in the UK yet, hence idiot question).
I think this is the one they use
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xiaomi-Ninebot-Mijia-Electric-Scooter/dp/B075PBGJ6B/
I suspect existence counts as plausibility. In fact, they exist so hard you can read literally thousands of reviews of extremely similar scooters.
The problem here is existence rarely proves legality, even if you Uber the shit out of it.
Andreessen and Cuban also have a wireless charging company they'd love to sell you.
For all intents and purposes anything left out unattended on San Francisco's streets is free for the taking. So thanks for all the free scooters, venture capitalists!
There should be a website about fun projects to make with the stripped out parts.
JWZ wrote:
>I'm still waiting for someone to publish a proper tear-down on these soon-to-be-landfill scooters and what you can build from them. I've even had a reporter ask me if I'd heard of such a tear-down yet. But, nope.
It seems you're in radical agreement with our host.
K3n.
Whoops. Here's a link to removing the speed limiter from the firmware:
http://techcat.ca/threads/how-to-remove-xiaomi-m365-speed-limit-firmware-unlock-guide.228/
lot of torque in those motors. probably you could speedup your curtain automation significantly.
[previously]
So how is the street's answer to lowering center of mass for car-oblivious teleportation and mountaineering coming along? Speed is the selfie-killer. Is the premium flock product delivering hot food, suitable retailoring and infrared vein renormalization in Darcy-forward modalities?
A summary of the 12 companies making their gold-rush grab at the scooter permits in San Francisco.
That Uber is planning to undercut everyone else is shocking, just shocking I say.
And... the story continues. Obike Singapore allegedly filed for bankruptcy, and their german branch(es?) just disappeared - city officials aren't able to contact them anymore. The bikes are still cluttering sidewalks, and the company tasked with removing them complains they can't locate the bikes as the app isn't really working anymore. Article in german (no english version found): https://heise.de/-4107481
Landfill indeed.
Like what if.... we lived in a timeline that was co-authored by Gibson and Ballard?
That would be amazing.
As in Sprawl-Like, where some customers of those suddenly-defunct companies team up to get their deposits and pre-paid credit (lost as per reporting on aforementioned case) back, perhaps with the help of some "specialists" they hired in a bar or via artifically distorted voice link? Or more Bigend-Like, and the broken bikes turn out to be the work of a yet unknown artist?
But in any case I believe the current timeline was never released for production use, it just got swept up somewhere in the lab...