A Software Malfunction Is Throwing Riders Off of Lime Scooters

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: Riders in Switzerland and New Zealand have reported the front wheels of their electric scooters locking suddenly mid-ride, hurling riders to the ground. The malfunction has resulted in dozens of injuries ranging from bruises to broken jaws. Lime pulled all its scooters from Swiss streets in January when reports of the incidents surfaced there. When the city of Auckland, New Zealand voted to suspend the company earlier this week following 155 reported cases of sudden braking, the company acknowledged that a software glitch was causing the chaos. The company claims that fewer than 0.0045% of all rides worldwide have been affected, adding that 'any injury is one too many.' An initial fix reduced the number of incidents, it said, and a final update underway on all scooters will soon be complete. 'Recently we detected a bug in the firmware of our scooter fleet that under rare circumstances could cause sudden excessive braking during use,' Lime wrote in a blog post Saturday. '[I]n very rare cases -- usually riding downhill at top speed while hitting a pothole or other obstacle -- excessive brake force on the front wheel can occur, resulting in a scooter stopping unexpectedly.'

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