In case you hadn't noticed, electric pedal-assist bikes have really made their mark in 2023, becoming a vital component in the mobility mix. For our look back over a year overflowing with ebikes, we revisit some of the tech highlights.
We’ve already heard of people getting stuck with e-bikes they can no longer get serviced once a new company go under.
I’m hopeful that EU-style rules on right-to-repair will make this less of a problem, but it’s still an issue even when the manufacturer is still in business. Especially if the product relies upon a cloud-based feature; I’ve yet to find many good reasons for requiring a network or cellular connection for basic mobility machines, and have to go out of my way to avoid such frivolities when buying stuff.
I’m hopeful that EU-style rules on right-to-repair will make this less of a problem, but it’s still an issue even when the manufacturer is still in business.
It’s crazy to think that EU laws would even be needed for something like bike repair, because IMO, repairing your bike should NEVER be an issue! Parts should ALWAYS be available and easy to replace, and it only becomes a problem when companies become too greedy and enshitify all aspects of their product.
These idiots went out of their way to make their e-bikes as hard to repair as possible, with bike shops basically saying “we won’t do it”, and now they are out of business and people are screwed.
I’d really hate to see e-bikes go the way of electric cars, where every feature is an extra subscription, and every vehicle spies on you anyway. This would be a micromobility dystopia.
That said, all consumer products seem to be going in this anti-consumer trend of XYZ-as-a-Service/Subscription. In Ye Olden Days, a subscription like a magazine or even the Greenwich Time Lady provided something which: 1) no one else could practically or substantially provide, and/or 2) was too costly in capital expenses to acquire in whole. Software fitted into the second category until it became obvious that it didn’t: that period when Adobe CS was offered as both a perpetual license or as a cloud offering clearly meant it was still possible to buy the software on its own, accepting that said software would not receive substantial updates (aka the old way of doing things).
As things like cars and consumer goods end up being subscription-ified, the option to acquire in whole is simply disappearing from the market. And I’m not convinced this rent-based economy is going to be as bold in releasing ground breaking products if businesses just want to release “faster horses”, to paraphrase an apocryphal story about an early (problematic) automaker.
To borrow from evolutionary terms, I sadly don’t see any substantial pressures currently that would dissuade the micro mobility market from adopting the same nonsense that all other consumer products are doing.
I’m hopeful that EU-style rules on right-to-repair will make this less of a problem, but it’s still an issue even when the manufacturer is still in business. Especially if the product relies upon a cloud-based feature; I’ve yet to find many good reasons for requiring a network or cellular connection for basic mobility machines, and have to go out of my way to avoid such frivolities when buying stuff.
It’s crazy to think that EU laws would even be needed for something like bike repair, because IMO, repairing your bike should NEVER be an issue! Parts should ALWAYS be available and easy to replace, and it only becomes a problem when companies become too greedy and enshitify all aspects of their product.
These idiots went out of their way to make their e-bikes as hard to repair as possible, with bike shops basically saying “we won’t do it”, and now they are out of business and people are screwed.
I’d really hate to see e-bikes go the way of electric cars, where every feature is an extra subscription, and every vehicle spies on you anyway. This would be a micromobility dystopia.
100% agree.
That said, all consumer products seem to be going in this anti-consumer trend of XYZ-as-a-Service/Subscription. In Ye Olden Days, a subscription like a magazine or even the Greenwich Time Lady provided something which: 1) no one else could practically or substantially provide, and/or 2) was too costly in capital expenses to acquire in whole. Software fitted into the second category until it became obvious that it didn’t: that period when Adobe CS was offered as both a perpetual license or as a cloud offering clearly meant it was still possible to buy the software on its own, accepting that said software would not receive substantial updates (aka the old way of doing things).
As things like cars and consumer goods end up being subscription-ified, the option to acquire in whole is simply disappearing from the market. And I’m not convinced this rent-based economy is going to be as bold in releasing ground breaking products if businesses just want to release “faster horses”, to paraphrase an apocryphal story about an early (problematic) automaker.
To borrow from evolutionary terms, I sadly don’t see any substantial pressures currently that would dissuade the micro mobility market from adopting the same nonsense that all other consumer products are doing.