Toon Vanagt: wearing a mask & physical distancing

@Uber used its deep pockets to design proprietary hardware (& SW), including a “smart integrated lock” to attach their bikes. That "steel cable with long pin"-unit (on the right back side) was supposed to block the wheel by going across the ‘spokes’ when inserted (locked stated).

This was never properly tested with motived cyclists without credit card (the artists formerly known as "vandals"). The street hack (which spread through the "draire grapevine") was to select an unattached free floating Jump bike & apply outward force on the cable (2,5cm) 4/n

The city of Brussels provides thousands of low green poles which have the perfect hight to 'hang' the cable over. By giving a 'gentle kick' that gap of 2,5 cm was a second away. So soon kids > age 8, started 'opening' the Uber fleet during summer.

The "beauty" of this hack is that the bike remains fully operational + tracked by the @uber mothership. Electronics, battery, electric engine are not impacted in any way. So paying customers can enjoy their electric ride, while the "free loaders" have to pedal unassisted.. 6/n

The locking unit still works for those paying customers and they can still attach the bike. However the 'unattached' bikes became a target for those who did not have access to the financial means to properly unlock this "gem"..

This all shows its still very early days. The free floating electric bikes (and steps) have a long road ahead to reach product maturity. But they all aim for that 'first mover wins the monopolistic race in the platform economy' strategy..

It is notoriously hard to fix and retrofit hardware issues on a deployed bike fleet.. especially for a company without “maintenance employees” and relying on the gig economy for cheap labour 10/n

Next is my 2 cent to help @uber rescue their electric bike fleet with an over the air software upgrade to all their bikes, while taking full opportunity of that cheap motivated labor and finally thrive in late capilism.. /s

Use that recharge capacity of the @uber bike to “exploit” those cyclists moving without paying. This will only affect the already “bended lock units” while giving a great PR opportunity for the poor kids who can’t afford an electric ride and saves money to pay ‘chargers’..

Don’t forget to add “gamification” elements to this software upgrade. Make it less heavy to drive to schools (remember PR), but very heavy from night club to home. Offer assisted rides (credits?) for freeloaders who deposit your bikes in high demand areas or during demand peaks..

Come on @Uber, don’t disappoint me. This “Brussels bended lock unit”-hack is spreading to the rest of your flawed fleet around the globe. Your engineers can deploy my suggested software upgrade by Monday. Love, Toon 14/14