They’ve been very controversial. There are lots of articles on rental scooters that you’ll find if you google them. But yes, people do collect them at night and recharge them as contractors to the rental companies, if the scooters haven’t been stripped, dismantled, or thrown into a body of water.

There is no government subsidy, this is cowboy entrepreneurship. The companies dumped these on the streets with no permits, no permission, no stations. That’s why cities are pissed at the sidewalks and streets being littered with them.

Each scooter has a transponder that lets the company (and the app) know where they are. And the companies pay people who go around rounding them up and delivering to a collection point where they are maintained, recharged, and made ready for redeployment.

In my city a young guy was mugged by a little gang on scooters, calling attention to what a great vehicle it is for crime—small, fast, nimble, and easily ditched.

I read one article about a bounty on returned scooters. The company pays a little money for each vehicle returned to a charging station. Kids and adults with time on their hands made it a part time job.. I don’t recall the city.

Here’s an interesting article on the scooter wars. I predict that because of all the negatives, this phenomenon will pass quickly, at least where I live in Silicon Valley, but not before it mutates into something still uglier.

And here’s one about the security risk posed by the “internet of things”—one reason why some people are fighting back.

Not only do I see hundreds of lined-up scooters out for rental within a few miles of my house but I see dropped ones everywhere, often on my street. I know vandals are getting some and scrappers/salvagers who hack or sell the components are getting others. I also hear that already youngsters looking to rent them (such as at the nearby high schools and middle schools) may have to try several to find one that works, so maintenance is not keeping up with damage.

Kids who are riding scooters home from school aren’t walking. That might be an unseen kind of damage.

And of course if these things really are feeding phone, location, and route information back somewhere, that information is probably worth more to somebody than the cost of the scooter.

Kids who are riding scooters home from school aren’t walking. That might be an unseen kind of damage.

In my eyes that independence is a plus. I see kids who never travel outside their block except in cars. They will wait an hour at school for Mom to drive ½ mile to pick them up at school.