'We will be showing up at your door': Search is on for missing e-scooters, service offline

Bird Canadae-scooter service in Windsor istemporarily offline as the companyworksto track down a portion of its newly launched fleet.

General manager AlexandraPetre said Bird Canada is working to resume service in Windsor, hopefully within the next 24 hours.

The devices can be activated using a smartphone app.

Last weekend, the company deployed about 200 e-scootersin the southwestern Ontario cityfor the first time under a pilot project. Some 10 per cent of thosescooters have gone missing.

The deviceshave GPS on board, giving the company a bird's-eye view of their locations, so even if they end up in homes or other inaccessible places, the company can send someone to retrieve them.

"We will be showing up at your door, either with one of our staff or with amember of the police forceto recover the scooter," she said.

According to the company, scooters going missing is something that tends tohappen with a new launch, though this time around, it was a bit more"aggressive"and occurredquickly in Windsor, said Petre.

"What we do know is that this dies down after a couple of days, mostly due to the fact that people realize there's not a whole lot you can do with a scooter once you try to take it inside," she said.

The scooters aren't operable without payment, and don't have parts that are compatible with other devices, she said.

Pilot project launched

City council green-litthe 12-month pilot project last year, but it faced delays due to the pandemic.

The scooters have been controversial in some cities due to safety concerns, particularly for people with disabilities.

Eventually, the company plans to deploy atotal of500 scooters in Windsor.Boundaries have been defined regarding where someone can pick up an e-scooter in Windsor: the riverfront to the north, Prince Road to the west, Tecumseh Road to the south and Drouillard Road to the east.

Petre said the Windsor launch has been a success.

"We received a lot of positive comments, we hadlots of lots of ridesand many excited people saying it felt like a new city."