Is the Electric Trike the Next Big Thing in Shared Micromobility?
Is the Electric Trike the Next Big Thing in Shared Micromobility?
电动三轮车会是共享微出行领域的下一个风口吗？
Rideshare micromobility vehicles are a common sight in major cities around the world, whether that’s a bicycle program or electric scooters. Now, a company called Veo is introducing electric tricycles into the mix. 在世界各大城市，共享微出行工具随处可见，无论是共享单车还是电动滑板车。现在，一家名为 Veo 的公司正在将电动三轮车引入这一领域。
Announced Tuesday at an event in Denver, the company showed off the Rover, a three-wheeled, sit-down electric vehicle designed for anyone to ride on the streets. They are available in Denver for now, but Veo plans to expand the vehicle to cities across the US. 在周二于丹佛举行的一场活动中，该公司展示了名为“Rover”的车型。这是一款三轮坐式电动车，专为大众街头骑行而设计。目前该车型仅在丹佛投放，但 Veo 计划将其推广到美国各地的城市。
The Rover works like a shared bike or e-scooter. Sign up for the Veo app, pay a fee to unlock the trike, and then ride it around. It’s 2.5 feet wide, which means it can legally fit within bike lanes that are usually three feet wide. The trike has a max speed of 10 miles per hour. Cities tend to cap these kinds of rental bikes and scooters at 15 mph, but Veo chose to go with a slower speed for safety reasons. The Rover uses the same batteries as Veo’s other EV offerings, giving it a range of roughly 45 miles per charge; on the rear is a cargo basket that can hold up to 100 pounds of luggage or groceries. Rover 的使用方式与共享单车或电动滑板车类似。注册 Veo 应用程序，支付解锁费用，即可骑行。它的宽度为 2.5 英尺，这意味着它可以合法地行驶在通常为 3 英尺宽的自行车道上。该三轮车的最高时速为 10 英里。虽然城市通常将此类租赁单车和滑板车的限速定为 15 英里/小时，但出于安全考虑，Veo 选择降低了速度。Rover 使用与 Veo 其他电动车型相同的电池，单次充电续航里程约为 45 英里；车后配有一个载货篮，最多可承载 100 磅的行李或杂货。
Veo is a smaller player in the micromobility space, operating in about 60 smaller cities in the US. In May, the city of Denver signed an exclusive contract with Veo to replace the city’s scooters and ebikes made by rival companies Lime and Bird. Now the sole supplier of shared bikes and scooters in Denver, Veo wanted to use the city to show off the newest addition to its micromobility collection. Veo 是微出行领域的一家小型运营商，业务覆盖美国约 60 个较小的城市。今年 5 月，丹佛市与 Veo 签署了一份独家合同，取代了竞争对手 Lime 和 Bird 在该市提供的滑板车和电动自行车服务。作为丹佛市目前唯一的共享单车和滑板车供应商，Veo 希望借此机会展示其微出行产品线中的最新成员。
The Rover is primarily an accessibility play, as three-wheeled vehicles tend to stand on their own and self-balance better than two-wheeled bikes and scooters. City governments sometimes require micromobility companies to provide options for people who need more accessible vehicles. Lime has deployed a free accessible vehicle rental program called Lime Assist that lets users in need rent accessible vehicles for the day. Bird launched its own accessible rentals program in April. Veo offers similar options but wants to make those kinds of vehicles more widely available. Rover 的推出主要是为了提升无障碍出行体验，因为三轮车比两轮自行车和滑板车更容易保持平衡且能独立站立。市政府有时会要求微出行公司为有特殊需求的人群提供更易用的交通工具。Lime 已经推出了名为“Lime Assist”的免费无障碍车辆租赁计划，允许有需要的用户按天租赁。Bird 也在 4 月推出了自己的无障碍租赁计划。Veo 虽然也提供类似方案，但其目标是让这类车辆得到更广泛的普及。
“The expectation is that your local bus or transit provider will offer accessible options for those who are in wheelchairs or can’t use certain products,” Alexander Keating, Veo’s vice president of policy and partnerships, tells WIRED. “There’s also an expectation for us, from the cities who permit our kinds of programs, to do everything they can to make them accessible.” “人们通常期望当地的公交或交通运营商能为轮椅使用者或无法使用特定产品的人群提供无障碍选择，”Veo 政策与合作副总裁亚历山大·基廷（Alexander Keating）告诉《连线》（WIRED）杂志。“同时，批准我们运营的城市也期望我们尽一切努力，确保我们的服务具备无障碍性。”
Veo says it worked with disability advocates, including the Disability Mobility Initiative, Parkinson’s Foundation, and Capitol Hill Village, to design the Rover, along with organizations like the AARP to make something that would appeal to older users, too. The trike’s three-wheeled design means it is self-balancing, so people can hop on without dealing with it falling over or fiddling with a kickstand. Veo 表示，在设计 Rover 时，他们与残疾人权益倡导组织（包括残疾人出行倡议组织、帕金森基金会和国会山村）进行了合作，并与美国退休人员协会（AARP）等机构共同努力，使其产品也能吸引老年用户。三轮设计意味着车辆可以自平衡，用户上车时无需担心车辆倾倒，也不必费力操作停车支架。
“Our goal is to make sure that no rider has to be treated differently in order to go through more barriers to enter the system,” Keating says. “我们的目标是确保没有任何骑行者因为需要克服更多障碍才能进入系统而受到区别对待，”基廷说道。
Like Veo’s other vehicles, the Rover is equipped with an AI-powered voice assistant that can talk to the rider during a ride to share directions, location information, and traffic updates. The software also has other features like lidar sidewalk-detection tech that aims to keep people from bombing down sidewalks on their Veo scooters where they aren’t allowed. (Denver locals have noted that the issue hasn’t exactly gone away since Veo took over.) 与 Veo 的其他车辆一样，Rover 配备了人工智能语音助手，可以在骑行过程中与用户交流，提供导航、位置信息和交通更新。该软件还具备其他功能，例如激光雷达人行道检测技术，旨在防止用户在禁止骑行的区域（如人行道）上驾驶 Veo 滑板车。（丹佛当地居民指出，自 Veo 接手以来，这一问题并未完全解决。）
The software also collects geolocation and ride details from the person on the vehicle. Keating says this information is anonymized, but the company uses this ridership data to help get a handle on what kinds of trips people use them for as it makes plans to expand the trikes into other markets. 该软件还会收集骑行者的地理位置和骑行详情。基廷表示，这些信息是匿名的，但公司会利用这些骑行数据来了解人们的使用场景，从而为将三轮车扩展到其他市场制定计划。
Electric bikes are very in right now, and companies like Lectric have already built electric tricycles. Trikes are more accessible for elderly riders, but they can also be heavier and more difficult to steer. How those factors play out and whether more people will want to try them is what Veo wants to figure out in Denver. Keating says, so far, he has been surprised by the response from people who have seen the Rover. 电动自行车目前非常流行，像 Lectric 这样的公司已经制造出了电动三轮车。三轮车对老年骑行者更友好，但它们也可能更重、更难操控。这些因素将如何影响市场，以及是否会有更多人愿意尝试，正是 Veo 希望在丹佛弄清楚的问题。基廷表示，到目前为止，人们对 Rover 的反应让他感到惊喜。
“We want people to think it’s cool; that’s what gets them on it,” Keating says. “You would think, like, trikes are for kids or trikes are for someone older. I think it might be for everyone. We’re going to see.” “我们希望人们觉得它很酷，这才是吸引他们骑行的关键，”基廷说。“你可能会认为三轮车是给孩子或老年人骑的。但我认为它可能适合所有人。我们拭目以待。”