Posted By: AsterixScoop up the robodog, dismantle it and sell the parts. Who's gonna catch you?
This fine city of the Presidio De San Antonio De Bexar has recently been peppered with these electric scooter things. There are at least 4 different companies running them. They are simply left in clusters of four or six on likely streetcorners, even in the barrios of the East and West Sides. I gather that one rents them through a smartphone app, rides around until the battery gives out, and then just leaves them where they die, to be located and picked up by some mysterious middle-night pickup crew for recharging and re-emplacement. I often wondered the same thing: what keeps people from simply making off with them and recycling the parts? Sheer saturation? I mean, I live in a place where you can't even put anything on your porch for fear of it growing wings and flying away.
Dunno, you'd think that the batteries would at least be worth something.
Not electric, but we've got lots of rent-a-bike stations here. Of course, people rent the bike then leave it in someone's yard or on a street corner...
Years ago the hopeful young socialists of Holland invented the concept of the White Bike. Anybody with a spare bike could paint it white as a sign that they were contributing it to a pool for anyone to use and leave anywhere for the next user. I believe the idea came to an end when it turned out that many of the bikes were being tossed in canals for the next user's convenience.