With the unveiling of the Audi e-tron scooter, the company is joining an increasingly long line of automakers that are venturing into the electric micro-mobility field. Unlike many of the other companies, however, Audi is blazing a new trail with the half-skateboard, half-scooter combo. The e-tron’s handle looks like a scooter but the deck and tires remind you of popular electric skateboards. According to the manufacturers, e-tron is specially designed for sporty riders and the aim is to combine the advantages of the electric scooter and the skateboard.
One-hand grip
The scooter’s handlebar is intended for gripping with one hand. The manufacturers claim this design would give riders the freedom to signal to pedestrians and other road users. This, according to them, can make riding on the scooter safer for everyone. Although there are concerns about balance, it is hoped that the skateboard-like movement of the scooter would make it safe to ride even while gripping it with only one hand.
Ride like a surfer
According to Audi, the riding style of the skateboard-scooter combo is quite similar to surfing waves. If you are an expert surfer, you may even ride the scooter without gripping the handle. However, the handle makes riding easy for users who are not experts at surfing. In the words of a spokesperson from Audi, “the Audi e-tron Scooter stands out, thanks to its handling, which is like surfing waves. The rider has one hand free, and so is able to look around and give hand signals.”
Functional and portable design
At 26 pounds, the Audi e-tron scooter has a comparable weight with many electric skateboards. This ensures it’s not difficult to move about whenever you need to do so. To make it even more portable, the design of the scooter is such that you can fold and pull it like a trolley. If your commute requires a train or bus ride, you’ll have no trouble carrying your scooter along, literally.
Packed with safety features
When manufacturing any personal transportation device, the safety of users is of utmost importance. The Audi e-tron scooter is packed with numerous safety features that can help protect riders from accidents. For one thing, the scooter can’t go faster than 12.5 mph. While this may be sad news for last-minute commuters and others who love a rush of adrenaline, the top speed is reasonable enough as it ensures you’re in perfect control of your scooter at all times.
Furthermore, the scooter comes with regenerative braking technology as well as LED lights on its front and rear: daytime running light, headlight, brake light, and rear light. All these lights make riders visible to all road-users, especially at night.
A scooter with smart features
The Audi e-tron scooter can be connected to a smart device via Bluetooth. The applications of the smart feature range from protecting against theft to adjusting ride characteristics.
Pricing info
The Audi e-tron Scooter will be up for sale towards the end of 2020. Early reports reveal that the scooter could cost about $2,225.
Startup
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.
Actions
Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.
Design principles
Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".
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