This is a weird offering for an individual purchase. Look at the unique features:<p>1. Non folding stem: Adds durability for a rental, but the super quick fold is a huge part of the appeal of a scooter, because it means you can easily take it with you on the train, put it in the trunk of a car, or store it under your desk. If you didn't care about compactness, you'd probably buy an e-bike.<p>2. Huge battery: Adds to the cost and weight, which makes it more annoying to carry. Great for a rental where Bird is paying per charge, but very few people need to ride 30 miles between charges, and for those that do, they'd probably rather have an e-bike that is faster and more stable.
I think one of the issue with people from silicon valley trying to make consumer products is the fact that it will always be too expensive for people outside of silicon valley.<p>When you live there you have a huge salary and the feeling that 1k is nothing, so selling a scooter for 1k is nothing, reality is that SV is a world of its own. That's complex product management issue in my opinion
$1299??? Apart from the GPS and "Free Rides Package" and "Bird Service Center", what's the value added? I could just get a Segway Ninebot ES4 for less than $800?
This feels like Bird trying to head-off people who might learn they can buy a bird scooter from impound for about $30, and a kit for about $10 to convert them back into normal scooters.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18604049" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18604049</a>
Seems like a desperate attempt by Bird owing to the inherent flaws in the business model. The pricing is wrong, one could really buy good scooters at that price band. What were they smoking?
I wonder how that works in practice. The scooter looks like a Bird scooter and is branded with Bird logos. If you leave it anywhere, won't people take it and try to ride it?
Interesting change in their business model. Wasn't the initial goal of on-demand scooter companies to give people the convenience of renting without the hassle of owning?<p>What's the benefit of buying this from Bird vs any other scooter mfg? Unless, this is some sort of rev share where they can let you rent in their network and make money.
$1300? What the fuck! The birds in SF are just the
Xiaomi scooter which costs $450.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Xiaomi-Electric-Long-range-Fold-n-Carry-Ultra-Lightweight/dp/B076KKX4BC" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Xiaomi-Electric-Long-range-Fold-n-Car...</a>
This seems like a rip-off, and a pretty high-risk buy given how new Bird is to hardware...<p>With a quick Google search, you can find the same Segway scooter that many of the scooter companies (including Bird) have used for around $500, new.
You can get a street legal new Honda Ruckus or Yamaha Zuma 50cc for ~2500. 115mpg, no motorcycle license required, 100+ mile range, and no charging. This is a tough purchase price, when you can order direct from amazon or Alibaba for at least 50% lower.
It says "Free Rides Package" and "Bird Service Center", but there's zero detail on what either of these means. Anyone know? It feels like those might a decent portion of why the price is so high, but can't say.
I don't see how "Uber scale" scooter rental is viable long-term. Interestingly, this appears to show bird acknowledges it at some level.<p>Unlike cars, the purchase and maintenance cost of scooters is minimal. And you don't need a license or insurance. The only reason to rent one is lack of scooter parking or if you're visiting. Eventually society will catch up and scooter rental will be like bike or car rental. A viable business, but not nearly the scale of rideshare.<p>You only need to look at how successful Jump bikes are vs scooter rental to see where this is going. I've already seen many people around town that were driven to buy their own scooter after trying out the rentals. It's just one big advertisment for buying your own scooter.<p>Rental will still exist, but I expect the market to shrink, not grow, in the cities that already have rentals available. The barrier to buying your own is too low to make this a viable SV style business
Everyone is talking about the high price, but they should be talking about the bigger offense — Electric Rose.<p>We're going to look back at everything "consumer electronics pink" in a few years and cringe. I'm surprised Bird is willing to let their marketing team further complicate their brand for the sake of short term sales.
In case you missed it, see also this very well researched LA Times article from a few days ago:<p>"Can Bird build a better scooter before it runs out of cash?"<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19835491" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19835491</a>
Or if you're a hacker you can buy one at auction for almost nothing.<p><a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/07/liberating-birds-for-a-cheap-electric-scooter/" rel="nofollow">https://hackaday.com/2018/12/07/liberating-birds-for-a-cheap...</a>
There are additional details on the home page of their shop <a href="https://shop.bird.co/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://shop.bird.co/index.html</a><p>The "free ride program" details:<p>20 FREE RIDES
• Up to $5/ride on shared Birds
• $100 value
Boosted is launching a scooter next week too: <a href="https://boostedboards.com/coming-soon/scooter/" rel="nofollow">https://boostedboards.com/coming-soon/scooter/</a>
I honestly fail to see the appeal of this as opposed to say Solowheel Glide 3 for last mile commuters. Doesn't fold, so forget folding it under the seat of the bus/train/etc. What's the point?
Hard to compete with what's out there in the market. Service centers aren't that big of a selling point when you can buy these around $500. I think they're better off raising the price to $2K and adding some "Level 2" autonomy to it.
> "give your commute a higher purpose with zero carbon emissions."<p>Can people please stop claiming electric vehicles are zero emissions?
Evidence their business model isn’t working out. Their scooters (along with all the other companies) have all but disappeared from my area, where they once littered the sidewalk.<p>Once you fall once or twice on these scooters, it’s hard to ride them again. Especially when it’s the scooter that’s broken, as is often the case. It’s a shrinking market base, consequently. They (Uber-Jump, Lime) should have given incentive by offering some kind of coupons after an accident, instead of declining all responsibility and sending you the terms you signed or ghosting their customers.