Episode 39. Greg Lindsay and Tortoise co-founder and president Dmitry Shevelenko, discuss the hows and whys of micro autonomy. Dmitry is convinced that allowing a scooter to park itself is an efficient way to satisfy the consumer preference for convenience and instant access to transportation on short distance trips. Tortoise's remote teleoperations and low-speed autonomy model doesn't require big, polluting vans to pick up the scooters for charging and uses the same tech components you can find in a $100 smartphone; its unique model makes it cheap and energy-efficient. Tortoise's position with regards to cities has been to ask for permission, rather than forgiveness, and have them decide where the service should be operated.