Hackers seem to have "teased" Lime's electric skates, causing them to start cursing riders. The company, obviously annoyed, described the event as "not at all smart" and "not at all funny".
Lime's wireless electric skates, which have taken the world by storm and can be found in Athens and Thessaloniki, appear to have fallen victim to a humorous hacker in Brisbane Australias. The hacker managed to modify them to play inappropriate voice recordings, a hack that the company was not at all amused by.
The voice messages heard from the e-scooters were recorded through their mobile phones by the users who went to use them and uploaded to networks social media. In these you will hear the skates saying “Don't take me. I don't like running” (via a video on twitter from 7News Brisbane), or “If you're going to ride my ass, then please pull them hair me, OK ?”, (via a video posted on YouTube).
Skates spawn normally sounds when they work, for example when are unlocked. Last year, the Guardian said that a Lime skate in Oakland was scheduled to shout, "Unlock me to drive me, or I'll call the police," if anyone just bothered.
According to the company, the hacker violated the physical port of the audio files, locally in every skate, and did not gain access to their operating system. Eight scooters in total were affected and are now withdrawn from use.
