I bought a Xiaomi Mi scooter on Amazon last year for $499. This is the same scooter Bird started with.<p>So far it’s been great. There’s a “Mi Home” app that shows you remaining charge and an estimate of miles left, plus total miles driven. It’s also got a charge indicator on the scooter itself.<p>The owned scooters go a bit faster than the rental ones, and the battery lasts about 15 miles total.<p>So far it’s been useful to eliminate short drives or Lyfts (coming back from dropping off the car to get new tires is one example; going to local restaurants is another.) It folds up easily and can lock to a bike rack or stow under a table at a restaurant.<p>We’ve put 110 miles on it so far, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but considering most of our trips on it are far less than a mile, it’s been worth the money.<p>At $1299, though, I can’t see why this Bird scooter would be worth so much more than the Xiaomi. This landing page doesn’t help; it seems to assume the people reading don’t know about $500 scooters. Perhaps that is their target market, but in that case, I don’t think this will sell that well.