While Uber is focusing on bigger things like flying cars and vertical-takeoff airports, it’s nice to see Lyft targeting an area that’s much more practical, effective, and for the lack of a better term, ‘down to earth’.
Partnering with Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi, Lyft announced that it plans on allowing its customers to rent e-scooters for commuting short distances. While Lyft surely isn’t the first company to provide scooter-renting, it’s now the largest company, already with over 23 million users.
Xiaomi’s scooters for Lyft provide a top speed of 15mph and an impressive range of 15 miles on a full charge. Lyft is incentivizing users to opt for its e-scooters for short distances with discounts, and prices as low as 15 cents per minute of use. The new direction for Lyft makes sense, not just from a business point of view, because people despise last-mile commutes, but also from an ecological point of view, because the e-scooters will provide easily accessible emission-free transport!
Designer: Lyft & Xiaomi.