Lime Technology, Ltd.
339 New North Road
Kingsland
Auckland 1021 New Zealand
February 24, 2019
Brendan Anstiss
General Manager, Strategy & Transformation
Christchurch City Council
53 Hereford St, Christchurch Central
Christchurch 8013, New Zealand
Re: Update for Our Lime Partners
Dear Messrs.
and Anstiss:
The safety of our riders not only in Christchurch, but everywhere Lime operates is our top
priority. Our col aboration with you, t he C
hristchurch C
ity C
ouncil, i s integral t o a
chieving o
ur
mission of bringing safe, reliable micromobility options to the Christchurch community. With
this in mind, we are writing to share some information about an issue we discovered
impacting a very smal number of Lime scooters.
Background In order to provide the s
afest p
ossible p
roduct t o o
ur u
sers, L
ime s
cooters a
re e
quipped w
ith
multiple mechanisms with each working together to brake or slow t he s
cooter. Lime recently
became aware that in extremely rare circumstances, usual y riding downhil at top speed
while hitting a pothole or other obstacles, excessive brake force on the front wheel can
occur, resulting in a scooter stopping unexpectedly. While this issue has affected less than
0.0045% of al Lime rides, some riders have been injured, and, although most have been
bumps and bruises, any injury is one too many.
What We’re Doing About It
Immediately after learning about this issue, Lime began actively investigating and has
decommissioned every single affected scooter in New Zealand. Lime has been able to rule
out the possibility of a hardware issue, and rather has identified a cause due to firmware
impacting the electrical subsystems (ECU) in some s
cooters. T
hrough e
xtensive a
nalysis b
y
both our internal team and outside experts, we diagnosed the cause in a laboratory
environment. We have developed updates for the firmware and are confident in their
efficacy.
Where Things Stand Now
On 19 February 2019, Lime released an initial firmware update designed to resolve the
potential front wheel braking issue a
nd i t h
as a
lready b
een i nstal ed a
cross al L
ime s
cooters
throughout New Zealand. Since t he f irmware u
pdate w
as i nstal ed, L
ime h
as s
een a
m
aterial
reduction of occurrences. A final update is now being dispatched to every Lime scooter in
the market and wil be complete shortly. This final f irmware u
pdate w
il c
ategorical y r
esolve
the issue. Lime has published a blog post to keep our riders up to date and, as an added
measure, Lime has sent an in-app notification to al of our global riders to u
se e
xtra c
aution
while we instal the final firmware update, especial y when traveling downhil , and to c
omply
with any scooter audible or visual warning to adjust the rider’s speed.
Due to the complex nature of the technology i nvolved, L
ime c
ontinues t o c
losely m
onitor t he
situation. We wil keep the Christchurch City Council apprised of additional information
learned over the coming days and weeks.
Please be assured that Lime is dedicated to the safety of its riders, inherent in which is a
commitment to the operational safety of our vehicle fleet. We value our partnership and t he
opportunity to provide safe, sustainable, convenient transportation options to the
Christchurch community.
If you have any questions or wish to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact
us.
Sincerely,
Mitchel Price and Anthony Fleo
