Pittsburgh-based Scoobi Inc. has pulled its fleet of dozens of rentable electric mopeds from the city's streets and has reportedly shuttered operations, according to Maria Montaño, the press secretary for Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
Montaño said Scoobi gave the city's Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) a 48-hour notice in June before the company started pulling its fleet of mopeds, which totaled 100 units that could be found in neighborhoods in and around Pittsburgh.
The City of Pittsburgh counted Scoobi's mopeds among its Pittsburgh Mobility Collaborative (PMC) initiative as part of the city's Move PGH program. When it launched in 2021, Move PGH claimed to be the first-in-the-nation Mobility as a Service (MaaS) system that combined physical and digital "mobility hubs" across the city's footprint with various transit-related services, including the aforementioned Scoobi mopeds as well as bicycle rentals from POGOH and electric scooters from Ford Motor Co.-owned Spin. Pittsburgh partnered with the Transit app to showcase these mobility options in real-time as well as those available from Pittsburgh Regional Transit, Uber and Lyft.
But now Scoobi is no longer one of these services available on the Transit app.
A Facebook account using the name of the company's chief operating officer, Jonathon Bametzreider, appears to be selling the mopeds on Facebook Marketplace and claims to have "a lot of 90 or so" in varying conditions. Neither that account nor a Scoobi spokesperson responded to requests for comment as of publication.
"We have always been proud to support [Scoobi] as a local micromobility operator and we're disappointed to see them shut down," Montaño said in an email statement to the Business Times. "DOMI is evaluating the need for additional mobility operators and any potential replacements to Scoobi's e-moped offering. DOMI is currently working on, and plans to release, a Shared Mobility Plan which will identify these needs and strategize for how best to address them."
Montaño said DOMI plans to release these plans in early 2023.
Scoobi's mopeds had a maximum speed of 30 mph and, according to its website, could be rented for a $2 unlock fee and then $0.36 per minute while riding or $0.18 per minute while the ride is paused, though the company offered discount packages for those who purchased their minutes in bulk. Riders needed to have a valid driver's license and be at least 18-years-old. Scoobi provided two different sized helmets for riders to pick from as well as a mount and charging cable for their smartphone, which was used to locate and activate the moped via the Scoobi app.
In November 2021, the company expanded into Austin, Texas, the only market it operated in outside of Pittsburgh. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an Austin city spokesperson also confirmed that Scoobi ended its operations in the city as well. Scoobi first launched in Pittsburgh back in July 2018 and was founded by CEO Mike Moran. It logged over 11,000 trips in the first few weeks of operations.
