Raspberry Pi 4 Used in Abandoned Scooters from Sharing Service

Remember when Raspberry Pis were harder than hens’ teeth to come by? Who doesn’t? I do, but then, perhaps I’m just interested in that type of thing, and perhaps I wouldn’t be aware if there were a shortage of, say, Bone Fones.
  Well, from Ash Hill over at Tom’s Hardware comes the news that apparently Spin scooter company had kitted their vehicles in San Francisco, where they started operating in 2021, with Raspberry Pi 4s. This already seems like overkill considering the application. I mean, use a Raspberry Pi Zero, maybe, if that much? Or even an ESP32-based board?

And, wasn’t it in 2021 when the shortage began? First the toilet paper in 2020, then our beloved newest-model single-board computers in 2021, and Spin had decided that Pi 4 was the ideal platform to deploy in fleet quantities.
  OK, fine, so they’re a business, they had a use case, and, after a no-doubt detailed project analysis, they chose the computing module they were most comfortable with. Can’t fault them for that.
 
But then, what happened when Spin, with their business focus shifting after a no-doubt detailed Excel analysis, decided that their San Francisco market was to go the way of the Bone Fone and be abandoned? Why, of course they sent out some trucks and collected their scooters from all over the city, redeploying them to other markets, or, at least, salvaging the parts as backups for other transport conveniences, right? Wrong.

It seems that what were once assets were immediately deemed trash, and who wants to pay to collect trash all over the city?

Anyway, now that the secret is out, I wouldn’t hop on the next plane to San Francisco — the good stuff has likely been snapped up by resourceful local hobbyists. But still, would you abandon your valuable hardware in the streets when you caught sight of a shiny new market object? I didn’t think so.

Were you left high and dry during the shortage? Finally got all the Raspberry Pis you needed? As always, if you’ve created something awesome, you can show us and the community what you made on our Elektor Labs platform. We can’t wait to see it!