Uber's Jump e-scooters are here, and they look just like Jump bikes
Uber's e-scooter fleet is finally here.
The company's recently acquired electric bike company, Jump, was one of four operators granted an operating permit in Santa Monica, California. Starting Wednesday, Jump's red motorized electric scooters will be available for rent in the Uber app.
Santa Monica is the first city to receive Jump's rental e-scooters, which look similar to the Jump e-bike's red design. Since Jump already has 500 e-bikes in the Los Angeles-adjacent city, it can only have 250 scooters available through the city's pilot program.
To ride the battery-powered scooters you can switch to the "bike and scooter" mode in the Uber app and you can see where the nearest (and charged) scooter is located. Like with the bikes, you scan the scooters, which unlocks the device, and then you can ride. Once done scooting, you simply drop it off anywhere (out of the way, please) and end your trip. Your payment info already in the app will be charged.
The pricing is somewhat comparable to the e-bikes starting with $1 to "reserve" or unlock the scooter. That comes with a free five minutes and then it's 15 cents per minute. This is intended for quick, shorter-distance trips.
The scooter arrival is the start of Uber's self-proclaimed transformation into a mobility company -- not just an order-a-car company. With its bike-share through Jump already in 10 cities and the scooters expected to arrive in more cities eventually (Jump was denied a permit to operate in San Francisco), Uber's well on its way to becoming the "Amazon of transportation" all in one app.
A partnership with Lime e-scooters is supposed to come online soon and when that happens even more scooters in more cities will be rentable through the same app that you order a car.
Topics Uber
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
