accidents / e-scooters

Scooter sharing (Lime) has recently started in Lisbon, Portugal – and is widely popular. Germany is just about to legalize the scooter – with many (potent) players waiting at the gates to flood the market and secure their claim. For investors, it is the latest Eldorado and serious money is being thrown at anyone waving a hand yelling “start-up, scooter-sharing”. And still… hardly anyone talks about the risks for the user. These little zippers go flat out as fast as I can go on my mountainbike – on 20cm toy wheels, without proper brakes and with (mostly) untrained, office type people 😉 at the handlebars. Who is going to carry the costs for the treatment of the victims…? Is it going into the same direction as it did with e-bikes? (senior citizens became an item in accident statistics: Google “e-bike accidents statistics”) Who is going to design and manufacture an e-scooter that is state of the art 2018 technology – and not a just (fast) toy? I think more investments should go into the manufacturing side of this business – rather than the into the sharing companies, who just buy in bulk from China…