Raspberry Pis Found In Abandoned Spin Scooters In Seattle 55
When Spin ceased operations of its scooter rental service in Seattle, abandoned scooters were found throughout the city, each housing a Raspberry Pi 4B. Tom's Hardware reports: This discovery was recently shared to social media where Pi enthusiasts are simultaneously befuddled and ready to book their tickets to Seattle. Legally speaking, if the scooters are abandoned then snagging one for the Pi inside is fair game but it's currently not clear if Spin has plans to recover their remaining assets.
As of writing, it's not clear what the Raspberry Pi 4 Bs were actually used for inside the scooter. At first glance, it seems like an overpowered option for something like an electric scooter but without exact confirmation of its purpose, we can only speculate. No doubt it requires much more power than something smaller like a Raspberry Pi Zero. In the meantime, residents have taken to finding these scooters and exploring their insides for the hardware left behind. We can see the Pi 4 is attached to a HAT and has something resembling a NoIR connected to the camera module port. Again, the exact purpose of each component and how it was implemented is unclear.
As of writing, it's not clear what the Raspberry Pi 4 Bs were actually used for inside the scooter. At first glance, it seems like an overpowered option for something like an electric scooter but without exact confirmation of its purpose, we can only speculate. No doubt it requires much more power than something smaller like a Raspberry Pi Zero. In the meantime, residents have taken to finding these scooters and exploring their insides for the hardware left behind. We can see the Pi 4 is attached to a HAT and has something resembling a NoIR connected to the camera module port. Again, the exact purpose of each component and how it was implemented is unclear.
Well as the saying goes. (Score:4, Informative)
One man's trash, another man's free computer.
And Pi 4 are pretty good at basic browser stuff.
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We can loot the other planets later.
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Lefty's are bound by this logic.
Hey Anonymous Coward, at least they know how to turn a noun into a plural AND when it is appropriate to use an apostrophe to create a possessive.
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Unless you want to watch a Youtube video in said browser.
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Ah yeah, the browser with YouTube is shite. But it's mostly browser issue as none actually implement hw accel on pi. You can easily yt-dlp the videos @ 1080p and run them in vlc just fine. But yes, if youtube is the destination best to keep the videos at 720p max, which sucks since the pi 4 can drive a 4k monitor pretty easily. So yes, your point rings very true.
I love pis but they aren't my favorite SBCs because of the poor optimization and the closed blobs needed to get them running, the RISC-V offeri
A goldmine if this had been 2022 (Score:1)
News is maybe 1 - 2 months too later for this to be a goldrush, but there is still enough value in parts that might be able to be scavenged to make it worth someone's time to go around and harvest a bunch (if they are nearby).
I just received two Pi Zero 2 boards from a local shop, which seemed to be stock for the first time in years (Pi Zero and Zero 2 never seemed to have had good stoack in NZ).
wtf were they doing? (Score:3)
Re:wtf were they doing? (Score:4, Insightful)
$5 retail will get a ESP32-CAM - with wifi, BLE, sd-slot and camera included. Enough compute power for a lunar lander, let alone a scooter.
There must be some reason they went with an expensive Pi4? Aside from fun burning investor money.
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I could understand the Pi 4B if the scooters had some sort of full colour display or something, but they don't. Just a two digit seven segment and a bunch of indicator LEDs. There's literally nothing going on there, as far as I can tell, that you couldn't do with an ESP32 or Pi Pico (they're ballpark equivalent). And even if they were doing something that was difficult to do with a microcontroller, maybe interfacing with the GPS module or something, the Pi Zero is pretty similar in price to the ESP32 or Pi
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Best guess is that this was a marketing company first and foremost. Not an engineering company. They had a Big Idea and knew how to promote it, but not how to actually make it. So they hired some cheap inexperienced programmer who had messed around with an RPi a bit in school, and he used what he knew. To hell with the cost, the goal of the company wasn't to make money, it was to be bought out and make the owners rich.
Mind you, I know absolutely nothing about this company. I'm just extrapolating from th
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One possibility is that they just wanted to get something out the door and their crappy code wouldn't run fast enough on a Zero.
The more likely possibility is that they were doing something shady with the camera.
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They probably wanted to develop the system fast, with the developers they had. Making it work on a cheaper system adds up front cost to get the code optimized down to that level.
Re: wtf were they doing? (Score:2)
An ESP32 can do this job all day at a tiny fraction of full utilization. If that's the reason then they must have had literally the world's worst programmers.
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They probably installed Raspbian and wrote a Linux app.
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I wish I could say I was surprised.
I just don't get why they wouldn't want to save the considerable amount of money involved per unit. The ESP32 is practically free compared to a whole Pi.
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They probably rushed to market with what they had, thinking they could optimize it later.
Re: wtf were they doing? (Score:2)
Nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.
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They could have put in the extra effort to do things efficiently and drive the BoM cost of each scooter down as far as possible; or they could actually have something on the street before the market became oversaturated and/or interest dried up entirely.
Since they've apparently just abandoned the market and the hardware their choice clearly didn't work out for them; but it wouldn't be at all su
PSA: Look at Orange Pi and Banana Pi (Score:2, Offtopic)
Just dropping this public service announcement: look at Orange Pi and Banana Pi as great and more powerful alternatives to the Raspberry Pi (not to mention far more obtainable and less expensive).
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Looks comparable price and stats to the Raspberry Pi. Might be good if you can't get an rpi, but the hardware support is pretty solid for rpis
Dockless garbage (Score:5, Insightful)
I know this form of micro-mobility is good news for the environment - at least it looks like it, considering the number of cars those scooter seem to displace. But...
In my home town, there are 4 or 5 companies spreading those things all over the city. When I go to the swimming pool, the entire 200 yd sidewalk it cluttered with those bright green eyesores to such an extent that wheelchairs can't pass. People abandon them everywhere, in the forest, upside down on roadside berms, in the city parks... and the operators don't come get them, so the city has to pay for cleanup.
And worst of all, people dump them in the sea at the port and in the river. Environment enthusiast have been busy going into the water in wetsuits fishing those damn scooter out so the batteries don't leak heavy metals and kill the fish.
Yes it's great that they reduce car traffic. But honestly, I am so tired of seeing those godawful machines everywhere they shouldn't be. At some point, I think cities should require dockless scooter operators to post a bunch of money to cover potential cleanup costs before they're even allowed to operate.
Also, cities should start suring those companies that leave scooters lying around when recovering them costs more than simply abandoning them. Those things have GPS trackers in them: the companies know perfectly well where they are, or where they last were a few feet from were before they entered the water and stopped pinging.
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Those things have GPS trackers in them: the companies know perfectly well where they are
So easy people use it for luggage, even internationally.
Re:Old man yells at cloud (Score:4, Informative)
Except it's not. Old men, young men, woman, people who think the sidewalks should be for walking, we all yell at clouds. Amsterdam did a public survey and found majority support for banning scooters, and the population breakdown shows that only a small percentage of Amsterdamers are old men.
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Are you proposing we have central planning committees?
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You're replacing one tyranny of the majority with another. Counterpoint Switzerland. It's a direct democracy, where literally every law can be considered a referendum. And that country is doing more than just fine.
If anything democratic elections giving people incentive to lie and cheat their way into power is the cause of the problem you described. If it weren't for political bullshit pushed by Farage UKIP and similar and given a platform by the democratic process, it's unlikely most people would support B
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Deciding public policy by asking the people is a TERRIBLE way to run a country.
No one is running a country here, they are managing city rules and asking the locals is precisely the best way to do that.
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Complex issues must be decided by representatives of the people.
Otherwise populism rules, and populism is bad. Very bad.
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It would be interesting if bicycles were banned along with scooters considering amsterdams love of them.
Probably more effective just to ban hire companies leaving their stuff everywhere, just let privately owned scooters and bicycles be used since they'll actually care where they leave their device.
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It would be interesting if bicycles were banned along with scooters considering amsterdams love of them.
Bicycles are banned already. There's a reason Orange, Donkey Republic, and O-bikes are not available in Amsterdam. Can't wait for them to be banned in other cities too. It also makes no sense in many places. If you live there you own a bike. If you're visiting there you normally required a return means of transport not a one way means and therefore just hire a bike (there's many rental places near Amsterdam Centraal).
No one here is talking about privately owned equipment. Although technically scooters are b
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If these have proper GPS and account logging, they should know who had the bike and where they dumped it - the fine should go to the irresponsible rider.
Re:Dockless garbage (Score:5, Insightful)
Call me crazy, but I've got a funny feeling that paying customers aren't the ones throwing rental bikes and scooters into the rivers.
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If these have proper GPS and account logging, they should know who had the bike and where they dumped it - the fine should go to the irresponsible rider.
That's in essence how it already works in a legal sense.
The scooter company is told to collect their property. They say no or ignore the request.
The scooter company is fined for that failure.
After that, the scooter company is free to pass that fine along.
Presumably they know where the last paying customer left it, and if that is who dumped it, that's who the scooter company can charge.
If it was moved afterwards, and not by a customer, well that's the scooter companies problem.
Either way it isn't the govern
Re:Dockless garbage (Score:4, Interesting)
Where I live, we fixed (or at least, "improved" compared to the 1980s) the problem with abandoned shopping carts by making the supermarket that provided the carts liable for the abandoned carts. The supermarkets now have contractors cruising around the suburbs collecting abandoned carts. These don't have GPS tags in them and the contractors still manage to find them and collect them. It should be trivial for scooter operators to do he same. Cities just need to enforce existing statutes against littering or abandoned store property.
I should also add that my city charges the scooter companies to operate. It should be fairly straightforward to either increase those charges (to cover the additional burden to the citizens) or just pull the scooter companies' licence for non compliance.
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Hell froze over. You said something I fully agree with. Incidentally some cities are already fighting back. https://bikebiz.com/amsterdam-... [bikebiz.com] Amsterdam has already banned share bicycles which are dockless, and scooters are next on the chopping block.
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That's the only way forward.
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The reason appears to be to free up space for actual owner-bicycles, not cars. Share bikes (and scooters) do not have a home as such, and are semi-permanently taking up bicycle parking spots and random pedestrian areas.
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Dockless works if you're ready for it. If you can't handle a major portion of your population using bicycles legally, then you won't be able to manage a dockless bike/scooter system.
The communities and campuses that waited until the venture-backed firms died off/were bought off are now offered significantly more useful features in their systems:
1. Lock-to requirement. Device must be left and attached to a bike rack. (Photo required to end trip.)
2. Escalating discipline for non-compliant parking. Warning, fo
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The solution to this is to encourage private ownership of scooters.
It's only the hired ones being left in crazy places and dumped, when people care about their investment they look after it and won't be so reckless.
That we are in a situation in many places where private scooters are illegal to use but these hired ones are left everywhere is insane.
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I saw the scooter business rise and fall over a few months in San Diego.
I think what they need is an entirely different scooter design, one smart enough to go home by itself, recharge and go someplace where it is needed.
Interesting engineering challenge.
Shocked! (Score:2)
I'm shocked that a company that uses RPi in their scooters went out of business.
Wait, what happened? (Score:2)
So an e-scooter rental company went bankrupt and they just left their scooters strewn across the city for anyone to salvage?
That's...kinda neat actually.
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