Uber’s next challenge: build a better scooter

World-conquering taxi app Uber has built a business around cars, but its latest innovation heralds a shift in focus towards self-propelled transport.

The company is investing in bicycles and scooters, seeing its future in smaller, lighter, more manoeuvrable forms of personal transport - at least within cities.

It bought the electric bike-sharing service Jump Bikes for more than $100m (£77m) in April and is an investor in one of its rivals, Lime, which offers bike-sharing in more than 75 US cities.

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Now the company is looking to build its own scooters, says Bloomberg Businessweek, a surprising move for a company which doesn’t currently make anything. It is reportedly “tinkering” with a scooter in a San Francisco facility where it is also investigating self-driving cars and flying taxis.

Neither Uber nor Jump, which is running the project for its parent company, has confirmed details of the report, but Uber’s boss said he is committed to moving away from a dependence on cars.

Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi told the Financial Times: “During rush hour, it is very inefficient for a one-tonne hulk of metal to take one person ten blocks.”

Khosrowshahi says he can turn a profit on cycle-sharing and scooters in the long term – but admits there will be pain in the near future. “Short-term financially, maybe it’s not a win for us, but strategically long-term we think that is exactly where we want to head,” he said.

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