Can a Parisian electric moped be Uber cool?

Can a Parisian electric moped be Uber cool?

The short version: 

• Uber is adding electric moped to its sharing service.
• They have partnered with French startup Cityscoot, and will offer the service starting in Paris later this month.
• Currently, Cityscoot has around 4,000 scooters in Paris.
• Each ride costs around 29 cents per minute, with the payment charged automatically to the rider’s Uber account.
• This is the first time Uber has included electric mopeds in their app.

Uber is doing its best to maintain market reputation and share, and adding electric moped is a great way to do that. The good thing is that there isn’t much risk for cannibalization here. There are times when a scooter makes sense, times when a moped is better, and times when you want to hail a car.  As far as expansion, I’m sure there will be a line of companies willing to get their hardware on the Uber app.

One potential problem is that a moped is a more complicated piece of machinery than a scooter or a bicycle. What happens when there is a crash because the brakes failed? Or a tire goes flat? Who’s a fault? Who pays for damages? Is Uber setting itself up for a pile of lawsuits?