Lime e-scooters to return to Auckland and Dunedin streets after glitch fix

Wednesday, 6 March 2019

Lime's electric scooters will be back on Auckland's streets by Thursday morning, almost two weeks after they were pulled over safety issues.

Lime's public affairs manager Lauren Mentjox said on Wednesday the company was happy to announce the electric scooters would be 'up and running by tomorrow morning'.

Juicers would be charging the scooters overnight and would redistribute them, she said.

An Auckland Council spokeswoman also confirmed the scooters would be back in Auckland on Thursday.

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The scooters would also return to Dunedin, where Lime had voluntarily recalled the vehicles due to the glitch.

The e-scooters were removed because of a firmware problem, which caused the scooters' wheels to lock up, sending people flying over the handlebars.

Auckland Council suspended Lime's licence on February 22 and the e-scooters were taken off the streets until the company proved the glitch could be sorted.

The council gave Lime the green light to return its scooters last Saturday morning.

Lime's figures showed the software glitch had caused 155 'irregular braking incidents' across New Zealand, resulting in 30 injuries.

Nineteen of those injuries were in Auckland.

Mitchell Price, Lime's director of government affairs and strategy, said the malfunction only affected less than a fraction of a per cent of all Lime trips in New Zealand – just 0.0086 per cent.

'But we also know that each trip is not really a number - it's a rider and a member of the community – so any case is one too many,' Price said.

ACC has paid out $643,000 for more than 1300 e-scooter-related injury claims since October to mid-February.