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Lyft to pull plug of e-scooter business in six cities, laying off 20 employees

The six cities are Nashville, San Antonio, Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas and Columbus, as the media report claims. Lyft has notified its employees about discontinuing its e-scooter business in six cities, claims a media report. Also, the company is claimed to be laying off at least 20 employees from the bike and scooter team, where around 400 people currently work. The six cities are Nashville, San Antonio, Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas and Columbus, as the media report claims. The report further quotes a Lyft spokesperson saying, “We’re choosing to focus on the markets where we can have the biggest impact. We’re continuing to invest in growing our bike and scooter business, but will shift resources away from smaller markets and toward bigger opportunities.” Addition to the 20 Lyft employees, a number of contractors responsible for scooter charging and their repositioning will also lose jobs. Previously, Lyft laid off around 50 people this year, claims the report. Lyft is not the only company to pull out from the micro-mobility segment, as earlier this year, Uber too announced the discontinuation of Jump bikes and scooters from a number of select markets including San Diego, Providence and Atlanta. Lyft currently operates its scooters in cities like Arlington, Austin, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Oakland, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Monica and Washington DC, informs the report further.

China’s Ninebot unveils scooters that drive themselves to charging stations

General Posts / By Wayfarer

Ninebot said Uber and Lyft, the ride-hailing giants that are expanding into scooter-sharing, would be among the customers for the new semi-autonomous vehicles that are expected to hit roads early next year. BEIJING/HONG KONG – Segway-Ninebot Group, a Beijing-based electric scooter maker, on Friday unveiled a scooter that can return itself to charging stations without a driver, a potential boon for the burgeoning scooter-sharing industry. Ninebot said Uber and Lyft, the ride-hailing giants that are expanding into scooter-sharing, would be among the customers for the new semi-autonomous vehicles that are expected to hit roads early next year. Gao Lufeng, Ninebot chairman and chief executive, told Reuters in an interview that AI-driven scooters, controlled remotely from the cloud, could radically improve the economics of scooter-sharing. “The pain point for scooter operators is to better maintain the scooters at a lower cost,” he said. Currently, operators of scooter sharing fleets have to collect the machines manually for re-charging. Formed by the 2015 combination of China’s Ninebot and U.S. transportation pioneer Segway, the company has quietly become the largest supplier for scooter-sharing companies such as Bird and Lime “I believe scooters will replace bicycles as the prime solution for micro-mobility,” Gao said. “It’s human nature to save energy when commuting.” The scooter-sharing fad was triggered two years ago with the launch of Bird in California. Venture-capital investors have since poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the sector, and fleets of electric-powered scooters now operate in cities across the U.S. and Europe. Segway-Ninebot Group has applied to list its shares on the China’s new Nasdaq-style board for homegrown tech firms, the STAR Market. The company sold 1.6 million scooters in 2018, according to a prospectus filed in April. Lyft and Uber did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment. The new scooters

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