Lime founding exec Caen Contee insists its scooters are ‘the safest product’ despite recalls

Caen
Contee
Lime

• Lime
  executive Caen Contee has insisted the scooter
  startup has “the safest product” despite the firm issuing
  two product recalls this month.
• People reported handlebars falling off scooters and the
  vehicles catching light.
• Contee said the firm went through several hardware
  iterations to improve the product and was transparent about
  what it offered.
• Lime is one of several fast-growing startups racing
  rivals — and the law — to establish dominance in the scooter
  market.

One of the executive on Lime’s
founding team has insisted that the billion-dollar scooter
startup has “the safest product” — despite the firm issuing

its second scooter recall in a month.

Caen Contee, vice president of global expansion and marketing
told Business Insider at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon last
week that the company designs its scooters in the US and
then outsources the production to different companies. 

“One of the reasons we’ve done customized devices and learnt so
fast is to create what is the safest product, to create something
that really does from day one… [serve] that trust [that] we’re
always here, we’re always learning and always creating something
better,” he said.

A
woman walks past a dock-free electric scooter
Lime.
Benoit
Tessier/Reuters

On October 31, Lime had recalled 2,000 Ninebot scooters after
“unconfirmed” reports that some caught fire in at least three
cities.

Now the company has recalled an unknown number of scooters made
by Chinese manufacturer Okai after users across multiple cities
reported that the handlebars had fallen off. Users on social
media in Portland, Denver and Baltimore in the US reported
problems, as well as in Paris.

Contee, who spoke to Business Insider before the reports of
broken handlebars emerged, said scooter hardware was “nascent”
but said the firm was innovating on the way Lime’s software made
the vehicles safer. He pointed to the fact that Lime’s scooters
have a capped speed limit in certain places at night, and that in
Prague scooters aren’t permitted in “high pedestrian” areas.

Read more: 

Lime
issues its second scooter recall in less than a month

Contee suggested Lime’s users were loyal because the company
learns from its mistakes.

“Ultimately when you’re trying to move in this space where it’s
so nascent, where no one has created a vehicle for this
particular use… if you haven’t made a core competency of being
able to learn and take that feedback and iterate on hardware,
then what can be done in six months of learning and [with] a
different fleet type creates a loyalty you wouldn’t have
otherwise.”

When Business Insider asked Contee how he might reassure would-be
scooter riders alarmed by the flimsiness of the devices, he said
the firm had been transparent in what it’s created.

Still, Lime’s terms
of service state baldly: “You agree that neither Lime
nor the Released Persons are liable for any injury or death
suffered by You while using the Services, whether or not You are
wearing a helmet at the time of injury.”

Scooter startups are worth billions, but there are lots of
questions about the law and safety

Lime has clocked 20 million in the 18 months since its launched,
and is worth $1.1 billion
after raising $335 million from high-profile backers including
Uber and Alphabet. Its biggest rivals include Bird, another
US startup worth millions in backing, Europe’s Taxify, and a host
of smaller regional firms.

All of the firms are racing to lure as many users onto their apps
as possible, and to offer different types of new city transport,
with Lime also offering electric bikes and electric cars.

But regulation and safety are proving thorny problems for
companies that are
taking a leaf out of the Uber playbook and perhaps
prioritizing speedy expansion over compliance.

A US man
died in September after falling off a Lime scooter and not
wearing a helmet, while a class-action
filed in the US in October accuses both Lime and Bird of
“gross negligence.”

Meanwhile, scooter startups have struggled to expand to Europe’s
biggest market, London, because their vehicles don’t meet local
regulatory standards. Business Insider
revealed in August that both firms were hoping to see changes in
UK law that would permit scooters on London roads.

Contee said Lime was “pro-regulation” and that the firm hoped to
convince London’s transport regulator, Transport for London, that
it had created the best product.

The firm will introduce electric bikes to the UK, then plans to
expand to other vehicles in time. “We will work to create
relationships based on that, and we will work over time to add
vehicles.”