Scooters Shout 'Obscenities' at Startled Riders

"OK, if you're going to ride my arse then please pull my hair, OK?" Comments like this caused several Lime e-scooters to be pulled from the streets of Brisbane, Australia, after their audio systems were hacked to play sexual and other offensive comments through their speakers. Another scooter was 'heard to say', "Don't take me around, because I don't like to be ridden", while a video posted to Twitter shows a row of scooters shouting their hacked messages. "We are aware that eight Lime scooters in Brisbane have had their audio files changed by vandals recording over the existing audio file with inappropriate and offensive speech. It's not smart (and) it's not funny," Nelson Savanh, Limes public affairs manager for Queensland, told the Brisbane Times. The scooters have been a huge success and 'commuters', often in business attire, are a regular sight zipping about the streets of the city centre and inner suburbs. The incident, which happened in April, hasn't stopped the popularity of the scooters in Brisbane, where they are on trial until mid-2019.