- Are you ready?
- I mean, the question is, are you ready?
But what does that even mean?
- Hopefully, we'll see him again.
He just leaves.
- I needed to check this out for myself.
New forms of transportation are taking over
cities across the country.
Electric bikes, scooters, hoverboards, you name it⁠—
and while it's great to have more options to get around,
micromobility, the name for lower speed travel
across shorter distances, has a bunch of issues.
Why is that?
Well, part of the reason is Americans love cars
and our cities are built for them.
But these brothers from Germany
grew up around two-wheelers
and think that a new type of electric vehicle,
one that takes the best features
of a motorcycle and a bike,
can improve two-wheeler adoption in American cities.
Their secret ingredient:
NFTs.
This is a show about founders challenging the status quo.
Getting around a major city like New York can be a lot.
Bike-sharing options are pretty good,
but you can only get so far.
I went to a tech incubator in Brooklyn
to check out a new kind of electric bike company.
First, I had to figure out where they were.
I'm lost.
So this is the 'Pave.'
What is it?
- It's essentially a fusion between
motorcycle and bicycle.
So we've taken the best attributes of an e-bike,
so it's lightweight, intuitive⁠—
and then combine that
with the good aspects of a motorcycle,
so you still get that exhilarating
and exciting feeling.
- Electric motors have advanced a lot in recent years
thanks to a growing demand for electric vehicles.
Smaller, more powerful motors are allowing innovators
to rethink what an electric vehicle can even look like.
- The electric powertrains have developed
so much over the past few years that really allow
a lot more modularity.
So, you can really have a lot more freedom
where you want to place some of the key components.
And that really allows a whole new set of design
guidelines, essentially, that you can work with.
- One of the benefits of electric two-wheelers
is they don't rely on charging infrastructure.
- And you just take the battery,
close up the seat, and you're good to go.
- Oh, that's smooth, that's smooth!
- We've really designed it to be used within cities
or like small suburban areas where the top speed
doesn't go past 25 or 30 miles per hour.
- Cool, cool, so can we actually go ride this thing?
- Yeah, let's try on a helmet, and then let's go.
- Oh yeah, this fits.
- Have you ever ridden⁠—
I guess, what's your experience
with two-wheelers?
- I know how to ride a bike,
and that's about it.
- Are you ready? - Let’s do it.
- I mean, the question is, are you ready?
- Yeah. I mean, sit down, see how you feel comfortable.
Move around a little bit.
- Do my stretches. - Yeah.
- Warm up. - Exactly.
- You got to go this way.
You got to go that way. Okay, okay, okay.
All right, so this is on. - Yeah, exactly.
- Hopefully, we'll see him again.
He just leaves.
- Woo!
Yeah!
Life is a highway!
Oh!
As a first-time user, I was scared to ride pretty fast,
but the crew rode it for the first time,
and did not hold back.
- So how'd you like it?
- It felt really good.
I feel like when I first started,
I was a little bit nervous at first,
but, like, once it starts going,
it feels pretty intuitive.
It kind of feels like a bike.
- This thing rocks!
- All right, so we've got a two-wheeled vehicle
with a new design.
Why is this innovative?
- So aside from design and performance,
Pave sets itself apart from a software perspective.
- Using the blockchain,
Nico and Caspar created unique IDs, or NFTs,
that are tied to each physical bike.
They're trying to merge physical ownership
with digital ownership.
- So when you purchase a Pave bike,
you get a digital version of it as well
that you use to lock and unlock the bike.
Looking at it more broadly, we're trying to create
a decentralized mobility community.
- The digital proof of ownership
allows you to then rent out your bike directly
to friends, family, or even strangers.
Pave's goal is to create its own sharing community
that's completely run by the bike owners.
One of the issues with ridesharing
is cluttering and a disregard for the vehicles.
Maybe a peer-to-peer sharing option
where people feel responsible to another human
could help with that.
We'll see.
- I honestly think that the most optimal way
to get around in a city is a two-wheeler,
simply because
even if you electrify every single car in a city,
you'll always deal with traffic
and you'll always have to deal with finding parking.
- In the most populated U.S. metro areas,
If just a portion of these trips
were replaced with sustainable, EV options,
it could change not only how we get around,
but how we think about designing our cities.
- Reducing cars in cities actually will open up
more space to build more things
for people actually living in the city,
rather than just parking spots with vehicles
that aren't being used.
- It's nice to imagine a city with
less traffic, more pedestrian space
and a wide range of choices to get around.
Electric two-wheelers won't be a one-size-fit-all solution
to enhancing urban mobility,
but they're an important part of the puzzle
as our cities continue to develop and evolve.
As for me,
I think I'll probably take one of these over a Citi Bike.