{"id":4613,"date":"2018-10-04T11:27:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T07:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/?p=4613"},"modified":"2018-10-04T11:27:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T07:27:02","slug":"uber-launches-its-first-electric-scooter-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/2018\/10\/04\/uber-launches-its-first-electric-scooter-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber launches its first electric scooter service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uber has launched its first electric scooter service in Santa Monica, California,\u00a0as part of its wider strategy to shift its focus away from cars.<\/p>\n

The company purchased electric scooter start-up JUMP in April, and has now started to integrate it into its main ride-hailing app.\u00a0When Uber users open the app in California, they\u2019re able to toggle between cars and electric scooter rental options.<\/p>\n

Customers can pick up JUMP scooters in the street, ride them to their destination, and then park the scooters on the pavement to end their trip.\u00a0The scooters\u00a0cost $1 to unlock and 15 cents per minute to ride.<\/p>\n

The move is part of Uber’s plans to shift its focus\u00a0from cars to electric scooters and bicycles for shorter journeys – a move which was announced by Dara Khosrowshahi in August.<\/p>\n

Though the company makes less money from the same journey done by scooter versus a car, its chief executive expects the losses to be offset by a more frequent uptake of its individual transport methods.<\/p>\n

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U<\/span>ber has also invested in another electric scooter business, Lime, as part of a $335m (\u00a3257m) funding round which valued the business at $1.1bn (\u00a3846m).<\/p>\n

Start-ups operating scooter rentals have seen a flood of venture capital funding in recent years as investors seek to back the next transport option for cities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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O<\/span>ne electric scooter company, Bird, raised $150m in a funding round that valued the company at $1bn. That made it the quickest technology company to reach a $1bn \u201cunicorn\u201d valuation as the company was only founded a year ago.<\/p>\n

Bird and Lime\u00a0have both launched in Paris, where the electric scooters are legal to operate. Both companies have plans to expand to the UK, but have not yet been able to do so.<\/p>\n

Electric scooter\u00a0are not yet available in the UK\u00a0because the Highway Act\u00a01835 prohibits the use of powered vehicles such as the scooters.\u00a0The Department for Transport decides which vehicles are legal to use on the roads, and said earlier this year it had no plans to change laws surrounding electric scooters any time soon.<\/p>\n

Index Ventures partner Martin Mignot, an early investor in Bird, said in June that \u201cour hope is that cities across Europe see electric scooters as a way to deliver a convenient and pollution-free transport option, making cities more enjoyable to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a once in a generation opportunity to rethink how we get around. The status quo with the current levels of traffic, pollution and congestion is clearly not working.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

–<\/p>\n

Telegraph<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uber has launched its first electric scooter service in Santa Monica, California,\u00a0as part of its wider strategy to shift its focus away from cars. The company purchased electric scooter start-up JUMP in April, and has now started to integrate it into its main ride-hailing app.\u00a0When Uber users open the app in California, they\u2019re able to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4618,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613\/revisions\/4618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}