"The dismantling, scrapping of unwanted oBikes is underway in a Tuas compound
SINGAPORE: The scrapping of unwanted oBikes is underway, with some bicycles in the process of being dismantled and broken down.
When Channel NewsAsia visited the Enviro-Hub Holdings compound in Tuas on Friday (Jul 13), a large heap of oBikes was spotted piled up at the back of the property.
oBike shuttered operations last month, citing difficulties in meeting new requirements put in place by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to tackle indiscriminate parking.
The bike-sharing operator was instructed by LTA to work with its liquidator to remove bicycles from public spaces by Jul 4.
Since then, customers have tried to get back their deposits, which add up to S$6.3 million in total. Liquidators have said affected customers should submit online applications."
A good innovation gone awry! Is the decision to carry out this experimentation by LTA to adopt the technology without challenging the open n persistent problem of "indiscriminate parking" n "abuses by irresponsible users" n the "huge deposit taking by the operators" experienced in the country of origin, China, a right one? Could it had been tweaked at the outset? was it rushed to adopt due to the "we r so backwards in e-payment vs. China" pressures?
In hindsight everyone seems like the sage n could say easily with confidence: "I told u so!!"
Yet, as an adaptor, could we learn fr this episode n do it right the 1st time? e.g. like to careful thinking into allowing AirBnB to operate in Sgp or not!
Perhaps, we could hv demanded non-use of deposits. Yet this request would hv killed the shared bike biz model immediately since those in China supposedly used the deposit money to invest n even lend out as "loan shark" in the underground banking system!
The mess of bikes parked anyhow was clearly documented n widely reported in China. Could we hv asked for "keep tap running" until bike is parked within e-parking area?
Anyway, huge waste instead of huge saving. A totally different outcome fr initial expectation. A nightmare instead of being a dream.
Next innovation to fail...
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