Friday, May 18, 2018

Bird Battles City In Arizona After Scooter Launch

Santa Monica-based scooter rental service Bird is in the midst of a back and forth with the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, after being hit by a cease-and-desist letter from the city last week, the day after the company launched its efforts in Arizona. Bird--which is backed by Valor Equity Partners, Index Ventures, Craft Ventures, Goldcrest Capital, plus Tusk Ventures and Upfront Ventures--is one of a number of electric scooter service which have been taking an Uber-like approach to launching their services nationwide, causing uproar among local governments and (sometimes) citizens. Bird launched its services in Scottsdale and Tempe, Arizona last week. Bird apparently reached an agreement this week with Scottsdale to limit use of its scooters to roads, not sidewalks, and to limit where those scooters can be parked. One of Bird's cometitors, LimeBike, just had 90 of its electric scooters confiscated the day after launch in Honolulu, Hawaii, after the city took issue with the scooters, calling them "outrageous" and "illegal".

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