BRISBANE, Australia – Not your everyday electric scooter feature: a built-in voice-over that blurts out sexually charged and otherwise objectionable remarks.
Gizmodo reports that’s what some riders apparently got in Brisbane, Australia, where at least eight scooters from the transportation rental company Lime have already been yanked from circulation after someone hacked into the scooters’ audio files and inserted their own comments. One videothat’s going around shows a bunch of the scooters lined up in the street, all shouting out their new hacked messages; one that can be heard above the din tells anyone within earshot: “Don’t take me around, because I don’t like to be ridden.”
Another one of the offending scooters, shown on its own in a different video, can more clearly be heard saying, “OK, but if you’re going to ride my a–, then please pull my hair, OK?”
In a statement, Lime addresses the “vandals” who inserted the “inappropriate and offensive” remarks, saying “it’s not smart, it’s not funny, and is akin to changing a ring tone.”
Per the Washington Post, the company notes that whoever pulled off the profane prank would have to be deep in the know about the scooter’s software and design, which not many people in the world are. Although the audio file hack is a new issue, Lime has been plagued with other problems over the past year, including catching fire, breaking apart during normal rides, and experiencing “sudden excessive braking.”
Warning: Video contains offensive statements and profanity
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