> the company’s engineers left Formula 1 to work on scooters “because we think electric scooters are the most important vehicle innovation of this century.”
I laughed out loud. Start up PR is a competition for “what’s the most absurd thing we can say”
I actually don’t think it’s that absurd. It definitely is hype but I think e-scooters and (far more) e-bikes actually are a huge innovation in personal transport, not in pure tech but in effect on lifestyles especially when you factor in cost.
I have a cargo e-bike I use as my daily driver, taking the kids to school, picking up groceries etc. If they didn’t exist I’d probably have to pay for (and deal with) a car. A lot of food delivery drivers are on e-bikes. If governments fully embraced them they could change the way a lot of cities look.
Scooters are just deceptively dangerous. The ease with which you can just hop on and go 20, 30, 40mph in instant is a false sense of security. There’s no drama, no warning, just pure speed standing upright, feet mere inches off the ground. Crashing on a 100mph scooter is sure to end gruesomely.
Assuming speeds are equal I think the consequences of a crash are better on a scooter. You don’t have a crossbar between your legs to trip you as you fall, and you start in a standing position, so you’re more likely to land on your feet. Also your head and shoulders are above the cars so you’re less likely to end up under the car.
Having said that I think scooter crashes are more likely given the tiny wheels and less stable frame. Try riding an e scooter without hands. It doesn’t self balance like a bike.
E-bikes have relatively huge wheels. These interact with any bumbs, curbwalls, pot-holes, rocks in much more safe manner. This with stability makes them to me much safer.
Still does not do much difference when crashing to someone or something or someone crashing into you.
Try jumping of a car at 25kmh. You'll be on your feet for some time indeed, the next step is both your wrist buckling (or snapping) because you'll instinctively put your hands up, and after that your head contacting the ground. Even at 15kmh I doubt most people would handle that gracefully.
From what I gather the injuries are similar, but escooters are used by more diverse people whereas regular bicycles are more of a lifestyle choice, much more nighttime accidents and accidents involving alcohol
Yeah I’m a scooter rider and there’s no way I would get on a scooter going that fast, even with protective equipment. Much less use it around other people.
There is nothing that prevent a scooter from being build with larger wheels and a longer wheelbase. In fact that used to be how human powered scooters were built a few decades ago. It would not help the rider steer with his legs like a motorbike but this is at least what I would do if I was looking to break speed records.
I think even a 20 mile an hour crash can do quite a bit of damage. It doesn't take much to crack a skull or break some bones.
My response to any kind of scooter has always been "No thanks. I like having teeth.". Just not worth it to me. I'll use an ebike if I need to. Feels much more stable to me.
I like to look at these things in terms of kinetic energy. 100mph is roughly 100x more KE than at 10mph.
Assume I hit a car with enough energy to break my leg and the car's windshield. This seems plausible at 10mph. Now, we scale this by 2 orders of magnitude. You could cripple lots of people with this thing in one shot. Bollards wont stop a guy with a scooter.
> the company’s engineers left Formula 1 to work on scooters “because we think electric scooters are the most important vehicle innovation of this century.”
Oh, they left F1 to develop another exciting, high performance vehicle that will sell in similar numbers to an F1 car.
> It reportedly produces over 24,000 watts of juice with a high-power dual motor controller setup developed with partner Rage Mechanics, which is a French company making all kinds of high-performance electric microvehicles.
So they actually left F1 to resell a downsized version of someone else's designs (Rage Mechanics developed a 50kW version) with extra springiness in the steering to make it less twitchy at higher speeds.
The most obvious comparison is an ebike, which would be superior in every way except one: portability. Where I live these scooters are popular, and people bring them in elevators and park them inside.
This is a real issue: bike parking is insufficient and insecure from theft in many cities. Plus, you need to charge it somewhere, and bringing a conventional bike to an apartment is often prohibitive. These make scooters much more attractive in practice than they otherwise should be.
To me, a foldable bike (with larger wheels and a seat) and a moderately sized battery pack seems like a better compromise between safety and convenience.
To be fair the guy is wearing full protection gear, so already there people should be able to get an idea about how clever it is to ride this without one.
The small wheels were blamed for people with street-legal scooters steering into a rut and falling. Seems motorsports is bringing massive improvements to regular people after a long time.
> This is like the cronut of bikes, all the downsides of a scooter, and none of the upsides of a motorbike.
Is it possible you didn't look at the article and are thinking of something like a Vespa rather than the type of thing you stand upright on while holding onto a handle?
These things have plenty of advantages. They're incredibly portable and easy to charge. When the weather is nice my friend rides his the ~20 miles from his place to my place (which is mostly covered by rail trail bike paths). You can bring one into the office and charge it at your desk. Many public transit systems allow you to bring them on the subway or bus, which at rush hour might not be possible with a normal bicycle. If bike lockups aren't available at the nearest station/stop, this lets people who live within a mile or two still get the advantage of public transit.
> Re-invent the Penny Farthing perhaps. An electric version of that, with some funky way of lifting the rider up, would be amazing.
The penny farthing bike is certainly ridiculous, but I can't imagine a way you could possibly make one look cool. Is it even legal to ride one if you don't have some sort of ironic facial hair, a bowler hat, or a vest?
Readit News
I laughed out loud. Start up PR is a competition for “what’s the most absurd thing we can say”
I have a cargo e-bike I use as my daily driver, taking the kids to school, picking up groceries etc. If they didn’t exist I’d probably have to pay for (and deal with) a car. A lot of food delivery drivers are on e-bikes. If governments fully embraced them they could change the way a lot of cities look.
Assuming speeds are equal I think the consequences of a crash are better on a scooter. You don’t have a crossbar between your legs to trip you as you fall, and you start in a standing position, so you’re more likely to land on your feet. Also your head and shoulders are above the cars so you’re less likely to end up under the car.
Having said that I think scooter crashes are more likely given the tiny wheels and less stable frame. Try riding an e scooter without hands. It doesn’t self balance like a bike.
Still does not do much difference when crashing to someone or something or someone crashing into you.
Try jumping of a car at 25kmh. You'll be on your feet for some time indeed, the next step is both your wrist buckling (or snapping) because you'll instinctively put your hands up, and after that your head contacting the ground. Even at 15kmh I doubt most people would handle that gracefully.
From what I gather the injuries are similar, but escooters are used by more diverse people whereas regular bicycles are more of a lifestyle choice, much more nighttime accidents and accidents involving alcohol
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-12627-x
My response to any kind of scooter has always been "No thanks. I like having teeth.". Just not worth it to me. I'll use an ebike if I need to. Feels much more stable to me.
Assume I hit a car with enough energy to break my leg and the car's windshield. This seems plausible at 10mph. Now, we scale this by 2 orders of magnitude. You could cripple lots of people with this thing in one shot. Bollards wont stop a guy with a scooter.
Oh, they left F1 to develop another exciting, high performance vehicle that will sell in similar numbers to an F1 car.
> It reportedly produces over 24,000 watts of juice with a high-power dual motor controller setup developed with partner Rage Mechanics, which is a French company making all kinds of high-performance electric microvehicles.
So they actually left F1 to resell a downsized version of someone else's designs (Rage Mechanics developed a 50kW version) with extra springiness in the steering to make it less twitchy at higher speeds.
This is a real issue: bike parking is insufficient and insecure from theft in many cities. Plus, you need to charge it somewhere, and bringing a conventional bike to an apartment is often prohibitive. These make scooters much more attractive in practice than they otherwise should be.
To me, a foldable bike (with larger wheels and a seat) and a moderately sized battery pack seems like a better compromise between safety and convenience.
Re-invent the Penny Farthing perhaps. An electric version of that, with some funky way of lifting the rider up, would be amazing.
This is like the cronut of bikes, all the downsides of a scooter, and none of the upsides of a motorbike.
Is it possible you didn't look at the article and are thinking of something like a Vespa rather than the type of thing you stand upright on while holding onto a handle?
These things have plenty of advantages. They're incredibly portable and easy to charge. When the weather is nice my friend rides his the ~20 miles from his place to my place (which is mostly covered by rail trail bike paths). You can bring one into the office and charge it at your desk. Many public transit systems allow you to bring them on the subway or bus, which at rush hour might not be possible with a normal bicycle. If bike lockups aren't available at the nearest station/stop, this lets people who live within a mile or two still get the advantage of public transit.
> Re-invent the Penny Farthing perhaps. An electric version of that, with some funky way of lifting the rider up, would be amazing.
The penny farthing bike is certainly ridiculous, but I can't imagine a way you could possibly make one look cool. Is it even legal to ride one if you don't have some sort of ironic facial hair, a bowler hat, or a vest?
At 100 MPH you hit the brakes and instead of stopping the whole thing just rolls over to slam you with the same velocity to the ground ? x)