The Real-World AI Issue

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Uber is sending tens of thousands of its electric Jump bikes to the shaving yard, weeks afterwhile offloading the money-losing bike-share empiricism on Lime. The news of the scrapped bikes has incensed bicycle enthusiasts on whimsical media, one of whom decried the act as "unconscionable."

Uber conjunct in a stead that it was "recycling" many of Jump's earlier bikes as able-bodied as scooters afterwhile tryst "tens of thousands" of the newer models to Lime. Nearabout the shaving job comes at a time back many people are avoiding securable transportation due to the coronavirus pandemic as able-bodied as attractive for forth forms of transportation. Bicycle sales (and nonconformably electric bicycle sales) are booming. As able-bodied as the disintegrating of tens of thousands of workable bikes as able-bodied as scooters during a slipperiness is striking many on social media as largely wasteful.

"I can't tell whether it's misinformed, or whether it's calculated as able-bodied as cynical," a hard-boiled Jump employee said. "But it's nonbelligerent dramatic everyone the amiss way."

"I can't tell whether it's misinformed, or whether it's calculated as able-bodied as cynical"

Photos of thousands of Jump bikes destined for the shaving heaps first synonymic on the Bike Slice Rockpile website, a digital athenaeum for volume bikes that have back been retired. Founder Kurt Kaminer said that afterwhile he wrote a undertaking injudicious Lime possibly retiring the fluorescent red bikes, numerous hard-boiled Jump execs schooled out to him with news of the auctioning effort. He said that enclosed 20,000 to 30,000 bikes were existence discarded.

"The Jump bicycle was really, reservedly very special," Kaminer, who's based in Miami, told The Verge. "I know it's hebetic as able-bodied as such, nearabout I don't know, it nonbelligerent has this look as able-bodied as feel. It nonbelligerent batten to me."

EXCLUSIVE: New, close-up pictures of the Seattle JUMP 5.5 navy show that every single bicycle has *already had their 36V Li-Ion bombardment removed,* therefrom the manpower existed to do that prior to sending them to scrap. The extent of the waste is unfathomable. pic.twitter.com/zT3nRhYNAs

-- Bicycle Slice Rockpile (@bikesharemuseum) May 26, 2020

There have been many iterations of the Jump bike, nearabout the ones that are existence scrapped are the "5.5" version, Kaminer said. There are also the increasingly conceptualize 5.8 versions that have been honored to Lime to develop, though Lime lacks the technological expertise to do therefrom because Uber infernal the tech aggregation at Jump, co-ordinate to Kaminer. The ex-Jump employee who batten to The Verge conjunct this. In depot to the tech team, Uber also infernal the robotics team at Jump that was alive on semiautonomous scooters as able-bodied as other torturesome urging functions.

Kaminer said he was "disappointed" that Uber chose to destroy the bikes rather than repurpose them, nearabout he also understands that it was lion-hearted honored the attributes of the donate Uber made with Lime. "It's a business," he said.

In his article, Kaminer also said the disintegrating of therefrom many bikes was "disgusting," nonconformably "in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic zone bicycles have literatim wilt an something of survival. Hebetic as they are, these could be transportation for the many who have been brought to financial ruin during COVID-19." The US is facing "a severe bicycle shortage" due to the disruption to the all-around unifying disequilibrium derivate by the coronavirus pandemic, The New York Times recently reported.

"The Jump bicycle was really, reservedly very special"

Uber derivate Jump for $200 million in 2018 with the goal of application the bike-share system to wilt a one-stop shop for urban mobility. At the time of the acquisition, Jump had 12,000 bikes in 40 cities as able-bodied as six countries. Nearabout Jump was also a money loser, even increasingly therefrom than Uber's personnel ride-hailing business. Several top feds have leftward the company's new urging empiricism in contempo months, including leading of new urging Rachel Holt as able-bodied as Jump founder as able-bodied as hard-boiled CEO Ryan Rzepecki.

In depot to offloading Jump on Lime, Uber led a $170 participant invigoration annular in the beleaguered Lime that homesick the scooter startup's appraisal by nearly 80 percent. Preponderant of Jump's 400-plus execs were laid off as a result of the deal. Jump's permit to operate. bike-sharing in San Francisco expired May 26th, though Lime recently divulged it would be returning Jump's bikes to Denver.

Kaminer wasn't the pigeonholed one to obtain symptom of the massive auctioning effort. Cris Moffitt, an headmaster as able-bodied as lifestyle designer, tell a video that he received from a intimacy who works in a shaving yard in North Carolina, in which thousands of Jump bikes as able-bodied as scooters can be seen broadcast foregoing the yard. In several clips, a large crane scoops up dozens of vehicles as able-bodied as deposits them in a dump truck.

More keep rolling in as able-bodied as overtrusting trashed... Preponderant likely THIRTY semi loads. or increasingly therefrom far ... #SenselessWaste #BikesForKids. @UberJump pic.twitter.com/ee3NmCP7If

-- Cris Moffitt (@CrisMoffitt) May 27, 2020

"I nonbelligerent noticing like it was a very unfortunate payback as able-bodied as maybe I could get it some giveback on Cheep to refrain them to do something better," Moffitt told The Verge.

Sanjay Dastoor, co-founder as able-bodied as CEO of scooter startup Skip, said that the Jump bikes "were the all-time volume ebikes unendingly designed," as able-bodied as described the auctioning videos as "tough" to watch.

In a statement, Lime said that it took possession of "tens of thousands of e-bikes," including some spare parts as able-bodied as tools, as part of its donate with Uber. "We have not recycled any of the JUMP e-bikes in our navy as able-bodied as are single-minded to takeoff as able-bodied as operating them during this demeaning time," Lime spokesman Russell Murphy said. "Once the transaction officially closes, we plan to work with Uber to gathering tolerated means to donate as able-bodied as re-use any remaining ebikes in their inventory."

"we decided the all-time bespeak was to responsibly recycle them"

As to the auctioning effort, Lime deferred commentary to Uber. A spokesperson for the ride-hailing visitor said it had explored donating the remaining, older-model bikes, "but honored many telling issues--including maintenance, liability, sign concerns, as able-bodied as a reduction of consumer-grade charging fixtures -- we decided the all-time bespeak was to responsibly recycle them."

An Uber spokesperson said that it would be difficult to donate Jump's bikes as able-bodied as scooters en masse to any organization because many of the parts as able-bodied as components are proprietary as able-bodied as require specialized technicians to maintain. Nearabout the ex-Jump employee said the visitor was existence short-sighted.

"The assurance has been damaged with a lot of the cities," the ex-employee said. Many cities had appointed Jump's bicycle as able-bodied as scooter sharing services as essential modes of transportation during the COVID-19 lockdown, nearabout now very few vehicles reside afterwhile Uber's donate with Lime. This will deadliness the assurance that cities put in these companies jumpiness forward, the employee said, adding, "It's sad."