Micromobile specialist Spin also brought Google Maps on board

Micromobile specialist Spin also brought Google Maps on board

16. August 2021 0 Von Horst Buchwald

Micromobile specialist Spin also brought Google Maps on board

San Francisco, 8/16/2021

Spin, a micromobility company owned by Ford, has announced an integration with Google Maps. Effective immediately, users planning rides in 84 cities, towns and universities in the U.S., Canada, Germany and Spain will be able to see Spin’s electric scooters and bikes in the app as they plan their trip.

Spin joins its biggest competitor in the popular mapping app Lime, which also recently announced an integration with transportation planning app Moovit. Expect to see more integrations from micromobility providers into mapping apps as shared mobility becomes part of the broader transit ecosystem.

According to a recent North American Bikeshare & Scootershare Association report on the state of the micromobility industry, 50% of riders reported using shared mobility to connect with public transit.

Similar to Lime, the Spin icon now appears under the bike section of Google Map when planning a ride – but only in the mobile app, not on desktop. Users can see the closest available Spin vehicle, how long it takes to walk there, what the estimated battery range is, and the estimated arrival time if they use the vehicle. If he chooses this option, he is directed to the Spin app to pay for and unlock the vehicle.

„With this integration, Spin is making it easier for millions of Google Maps users to incorporate bikes and scooters into their daily commutes,“ Spin CEO Ben Bear said in a statement. „Our goal is to make planning multimodal trips as frictionless as possible for consumers. It needs to be just as easy and even more convenient to get around by bike, bus, train or scooter than it is to drive your own car.“

Bear also said that this collaboration with Google is Spin’s largest to date, and he Wies pointed out that there are „many more in the pipeline.“ Spin is already integrated with platforms such as Citymapper, Moovit, Transit, and Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe.