Bird lets you rent a scooter with a tap, no QR scan required

Bird has a new, faster way to rent a scooter. 

Called Quick Start, the feature allows Bird riders to activate a nearby scooter by walking towards it and tapping a button. 

Bird says this is twice as fast as the typical method of unlocking, which requires users to scan a QR code located on the scooter. 

There might be another benefit. QR codes are sometimes unreadable, be it a result of age or vandalism. I've experienced this often in Berlin. The Quick Start method is a pretty simple way to bypass QR scanning altogether. 

For the Quick Start feature to work, users must have Bluetooth enabled. As a user approaches an available scooter, she will see a "Start" button in place of the "Reserve" button that's shown when you're farther away. The user can then start the ride with a tap. 

Bird says Quick Start is available in "many" cities as of today, and will be "increasingly made available to riders around the world in the coming weeks." 

In a recent blog post, Bird said it's doing fine despite the coronavirus pandemic. The company says it's seeing sustained increases in trip duration as well as number of rides taken in recent months.