Ride-Share E-Scooter Speed Deception - Neuron

FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 16:14
Last edited 22/12/2021 - 17:40

Neuron and Beam e-scooters landed in Hobart a couple of days ago for a 12-month trial…

Neuron have a monthly plan which costs $45 and allows you to use the scooters for up to 90 minutes per day for the month, I jumped on this today, I figured I could do a few decent trips over the month to get my monies worth out of the monthly pass…

Neuron advertise the scooters are limited to 25km/h in hi-speed mode, and 15km/h in low-speed mode and low-speed zones, this is the same as the others I have used…

Now the issue ! … The scooters indicate 25km/h but the accurate GPS speed is only around 15km/h, and in low-speed zones they indicate 15km/h but the accurate GPS speed is only 9km/h… The error is consistent and obviously programmed into the scooters by Neuron…

I tested 3 scooters over roughly 12km of shared cycle paths, roads, and footpaths, they all had the same issue, pathetically slow, no fun at all really, I feel quite ripped off and I'll be asking for the $45 monthly pass to be refunded…

Pics or it didn't happen:
https://i.postimg.cc/bw3rVJKp/vlcsnap-2021-12-21-15h14m48s91…

In New Zealand earlier in the year I used the Beam and Flamingo scooters a fair bit and they were a lot of fun, they all had the same 25km/h speed limit (15km/h in low-speed zones), their speedometers and speed limits were VERY accurate…

Has anyone else come across this speed issue with ride-share scooters in Australia?, is this type of deception and false advertising common with scooters in Australia?

UPDATE: Reply from Neuron (I contacted them yesterday with a detailed explanation of the issue and requested a refund)

Thank you for reaching back. I'm sorry to hear about it.

Rest assured we've forwarded this feedback to the relevant team.

As a gesture of goodwill, I have initiated a full refund of your pass back to your account. It may take a few working days for this to be reflected in your account (depending on your bank's processing time).

Thank you and I wish you a pleasant day ahead.

Edit: and 5 mins later the refund was processed through Paypal :) Thumbs up :)

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Comments

  • Switchblade88 on 21/12/2021 - 16:48
    +5

    Programmed as MPH instead of Km/H?

    • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 17:05
      +2

      Good call, that adds up almost perfectly … I'm disappointed I didn't catch that, lol ….

      Since it seems to be an issue on all their scooters down here it seems like quite a deliberate act, maybe a method to extend battery life…

      On the 4 rides I did on 3 different scooters I left 1-star feedback and detailed the speed issues, someone replied to each of my feedback comments with scripted responses questioning if I was in a low-speed zone, if I had the 2-speed settings set correctly, and one claiming "Rest assured, I've alerted my dedicated team to retrieve the scooter"

      I've since replied to them with detailed feedback and requesting a refund, I'll see what happens…

      • ThithLord on 21/12/2021 - 17:10
        +1

        Yep sounds very dodgy. Keep hassling them

  • Soluble on 21/12/2021 - 17:06
    +3

    We just got them as well, so far I pretty much only see kids and drunk people riding them. So the slower they go the better

    • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 17:11

      They only appeared in Hobart on Friday and over the weekend there's been a lot of clips and photos of drunks and injured people appear on social media, I assume the novelty will wear off fairly fast and that crap will die down… I'm surprised the police weren't out around the Hobart docks, (our nightclub zone), on Friday & Saturday nights breathalyzing people, they should have been…

      Today I saw quite a few people on them, all adults and touristy types, the type of people they're designed for…

      • Soluble on 21/12/2021 - 17:21
        +1

        Yeah we got them on Tuesday last week, night 1, one was under a car with the firebrigade called, by the weekend someone had been pushed through a shop window riding one. I have not seen the police pull up 1 person in our area. Have seen up to 4 kids on 1 scooter(quite often 2 or 3) parents riding with kids, packs of 15+ kids, no helmets, nearly no one riding them on the bike paths, mostly foot paths etc.

  • [Deactivated] on 21/12/2021 - 17:51

    Why do you need to go so fast?

    • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 17:57
      +1

      25km/h isn't fast on a bike path or a road… 15km/h is painfully slow, but ok for the busy low-speed zones, the current 9km/h limit in the low-speed zones is just crazy, I had a young kid about 7yo overtake me on their little pushbike through Salamanca, lol, all I could do was laugh at myself and the pathetic scooter…

      If you go to a servo and buy 25L of fuel and only get 15L, would you be happy with that?

      • [Deactivated] on 21/12/2021 - 22:33

        If you go to a servo and buy 25L of fuel and only get 15L, would you be happy with that?

        Except that you're comparing a maximum speed vs something that is quantifiable. eg: 15L of fuel is always less than 25L of fuel.

        Your 25km/h (which you've discovered in another comment is a MPH to KMH conversion issue) is not the min speed, it's the max.

        • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 22:40

          Speed is just as "quantifiable as volume", I spent money on the product based on their claims which are false…

          At the moment I'm thinking it could well be an honest error, time will tell and I'll be sure to report back…

          I might head out tomorrow and do a decent 4K video with the Gopro 10 on the Beam and Neuron, the speed comparison between the two should remove any doubt people have about the GPS accuracy and such..

  • Davo1111 on 21/12/2021 - 18:20
    +1

    Not sure i believe your phone is a source of accuracy.

    However, Just dont renew at EOM

    • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 18:45
      +2

      I have 100% faith in the GPS satellites and that Memory-Map app (which I've been using for over a decade now), GPS either works or it doesn't, there are no variables, there is nothing that can cause it to not be accurate…. I've recorded 154,394km in Australia and other countries with that GPS mapping application in cars, campervans, motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, and hiking, I record GPS tracks for most of my adventures and travels… I also know very well what 25km/h feels like due to regular rides on my e-bike, the pedal assist cuts out at 25km/h on it… (plus prior e-scooter experience)

      https://youtu.be/WSw-RUsnitw (Wellington NZ May-2021)

      25km/h is a fun speed IMO, 15km/h is a ho-hum are we there yet kind of speed….

      All good to say "just don't renew it" but the service is not what was advertised and it is unusable, so I will be pushing for a full refund, I wont let them keep my $45 for one pathetic 1-hour ride…

      • jv on 21/12/2021 - 22:45

        there is nothing that can cause it to not be accurate…

        latency.

        • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 22:49

          If you had used this GPS app as much as I have you would know that is not the issue here ;) , plus personal experience of speed…

  • mskeggs on 21/12/2021 - 19:29

    I guess the trial wants to see if people will hoon around at top speed in amongst pedestrians, or be more careful.
    The reluctance of authorities to approve these is because they're worried about people riding at running speed around slower pedestrians.

    • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 19:38

      Hobart City Council and the State Gov seemed fairly keen to get them here, the Gov changed a few laws to allow their use… The scooters will be very popular with the tourists around the Hobart foreshore, they'll be a perfect form of transport to get between a lot of the popular attractions, the service footprint is quite large, larger than I thought it would be…

      The area where speed and pedestrians may be an issue is a "Low-Speed zone" (15km/h), and the main CBD footpaths are a no-go zone, they have all that covered… (If you've ever been to Hobart you'd know it's not a crowded hectic city like the center of Sydney or such)

      I might head out tomorrow and take a Beam scooter for a razz to ensure it's not a wide spread conspiracy, lol, I very much doubt it is…

      This could well be an honest programming error with these 300 brand-new Neuron scooters that were dropped in Hobart 3 days ago, someone may have stuffed up and no one has picked up on it yet… (this came to mind after Switchblade88 pointed out the speed error is the same as MPH v's KMH ~0.62)

      I should say, I started this thread to find out if anyone else has experienced similar issues, I didn't intend it to be a bit of a rant…

  • Clear on 21/12/2021 - 22:36
    +1

    I've done about 70km on them since their introduction in Hobart. They certainly feel like 25km/h late at night on an empty street. Though in saying that only today while in Launceston on business I zipped around the city on a Neuron and that felt fast too.

    • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 22:41

      They only added in the Hobart CBD, docks, & Salamanca low-speed zone today, so maybe the error was introduced with the addition of that low-speed zone, time will tell…

    • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 22:47

      The low-speed zone that appeared today:
      https://i.postimg.cc/mDgqvYVm/Screenshot-2021-12-21-22-43-46…

      I grabbed the first one from Cornelian Bay, heading into the Cenotaph on the bike track, around the docks, Salamanca, down to Battery Point, and return..

      • Clear on 21/12/2021 - 22:49
        +1

        I know in the north of the state they've turned a lot of carparks and the skatepark into no ride zones. I'm just going to buy my own.

        • FLICKIT on 21/12/2021 - 22:58

          Yeh, I'd never buy one… After using them in NZ I was semi-keen but I decided an E-mountain-bike better suited my needs, so I built one with an AliExpress Bafang kit…
          https://youtu.be/vhiZr2Midiw (70km ride Granton to Taroona return, kinda a boring vid if you're not me, lol))

          The scooters are a fun toy but they have limited usability, like, they would be good if you lived close to work and wanted to use one to commute or such, otherwise you'd get bored of them fairly fast I think… This is why I purchased the one month pass, I figured that would be enough to get it out of my system..

  • sjj89 on 22/12/2021 - 08:00

    My gf broke her hip on a Neuron. User beware

    • sjj89 on 22/12/2021 - 08:01

      Going 15kph max mind you

    • FLICKIT on 22/12/2021 - 10:42

      Ouch, how did she manage that?

      I found the Neuron scooters ride quite a bit better than the Beam & Flamingos I used in NZ, no where near as twitchy, maybe due to the larger wheel size and wider deck, the bars felt a bit higher and wider also… (the lower speed may have been a factor also)

  • FLICKIT on 22/12/2021 - 17:42

    Reply from Neuron

    Thank you for reaching back. I'm sorry to hear about it.

    Rest assured we've forwarded this feedback to the relevant team.

    As a gesture of goodwill, I have initiated a full refund of your pass back to your account. It may take a few working days for this to be reflected in your account (depending on your bank's processing time).

    Thank you and I wish you a pleasant day ahead.

    …. I assume that means they know there's an issue and they're working on it…

    Edit: and 5 mins later the refund was processed through Paypal :) Thumbs up :)

  • Binggggo on 13/01/2022 - 14:39

    Any updates on how fast Neuron goes in Hobart? :) Seemed slower than Beam to me this week.

    • FLICKIT on 14/01/2022 - 13:41

      I was so disappointed with them I haven't bothered giving them another try since I received the refund, plus I've been making an effort to avoid the diseased masses…

      Eventually, when I get bored and need something to do, I'll go take both brands for a spin with the GPS & Gopro on the bars, do a decent comparison…

  • Binggggo on 13/01/2022 - 21:56
    +1

    Ps. And my gps app recorded 15km or less while the speed on the scooter said 25…

    • FLICKIT on 14/01/2022 - 13:43

      Interesting… I read somewhere there were concerns about the 25kmh speed limit, and that limit would be reviewed down the track, it makes me wonder if they've purposely limited the speed so there's less complaints, so this initial trial is a success…

      • [Deactivated] on 01/02/2022 - 10:55

        Ive found that the auto-breaks won't properly slow down the scooter in downhills. So, may be the lower limit is to make sure it never goes beyond 25 even in downhills.

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