Last year, the Scooter Map app was released; it allows scooter chargers (the people who earn money from juicing up scooters at night) to see and pick scooters from multiple scooter rental companies all in one single app.
A few days ago Lime sent new cease and desist letter to Scooter Map, which pulls Lime scooter data like location and battery level onto its app to make it easier for the chargers to find all the scooters they can pickup and change across the brands that have contracts with.
Last week we received the following e-mail:
Lime is Bullying Scooter Map
I (Victor) started Scooter Map to make it easy to find scooters and bikes. First, I focused on helping gig-worker chargers make more money each hour. Later, I expanded the rider side.
Lime, apparently, doesn’t like Scooter Map because Lime wants to be the only scooter company you use. Lime has sent Cease and Desist letters to Scooter Map and has petitioned Apple to remove Scooter Map from the App Store.
In 2018, Lime gave me a job offer and I met their current CEO. In 2019, I met their CTO who said the Cease and Desist was a mistake. (Lime is now denying what happened in that meeting.)
Yet no one at Lime other than Lime’s Chief Legal Officer has reached out to me. There has been no discussion or sympathy for Lime’s gig-workers who use Scooter Map.
Scooter Map is a small bootstrapped company that’s barely breaking even. Hell, it’s just me right now. I don’t have the money to hire some fancy lawyer to defend Scooter Map in court.
I am running Scooter Map because I believe it’s a valuable service to scooter riders and chargers. Hundreds of gig-worker chargers have told me that Scooter Map has made their job and lives significantly easier. I can’t just abandon them.
Lime has raised $750m+ with the claim that they want to “partner with cities” but instead they are using that money to lock out competitors and to bully small companies.
If you think that it should be easy to see all of your mobility options, that Apple shouldn’t remove helpful apps from the App Store, and that gig workers should be supported then you’re with me.
With a link to their Petition
You should know you can still find Lime scooters to ride in Scooter Map. The app is also very useful for riders looking for the closest scooter near them when wanting to ride.
Privacy – huh? Scooter Map can track people who have the app open, like every other app. But we don’t share user data
2 – just false
3 – you’d think Lime’s CTO would have mentioned this to me in person
4 – maybe Lime is mad because @SpringMobility biz beat Lime for permits pic.twitter.com/mFMqauYjYa
— Victor ✦ lu.ma (@VictorPontis) January 20, 2020
Scooter Map has made changes in the past to please the big scooter firms. In the beginning, Scooter Map let users unlock scooters directly through its app. After push back form the bigger firms, they now redirect to each scooter companies’ specific app.
Lime claims that Scooter Map’s app negatively impacts the rider experience and is violating user privacy. They say the app access user data without the user’s knowledge in an attempt to get around Lime’s cybersecurity measures. They also claim the app is slowing down their data system and making their data server less accurate for users. Lastly, they claim the app opens Lime’s confidential trade secrets up to the public.
