Scooters only by passport: in Russia discuss verification through “Gosuservices”

In Russia, the idea of introducing mandatory authorization via “Gosusgoservices” for electric scooter users is being discussed. The initiative comes from the kickshare services themselves, who propose to make such verification mandatory across the country in order to limit the access of minors to renting SIM – means of individual mobility.

As of today, such a tie-in is already in effect in Moscow: since March, users have been required to log in through an account on the mos.ru portal. Only citizens over the age of 18 can get a full account there. This made it possible to exclude from the service the most “emergency” age group – teenagers. Now the kickshare operators want to scale this approach to the federal level.

Previously, to rent an electric scooter it was enough to install a mobile app, link a bank card and agree to the terms of the offer. However, as practice shows, such measures do not guarantee that minors will not have access to rentals. For example, the Whoosh service, for example, in some cities allows users from 16 years of age to rent an electric scooter.

The Ministry of Digital Economy confirmed that it is working on launching an experiment with authorization through the Gosusudy portal. At the first stage, one of the operators will participate in it. The user will be able to choose which data to provide and, if necessary, revoke consent for their use.

The agency specifies that there are no plans to introduce verification at the federal level yet – this would require a separate regulatory framework. But the discussion is ongoing, and the likelihood of such changes in the coming years is high.

Kickshare services now operate in more than 210 Russian cities, and the total number of registered users is approaching 61 million people. According to the Interior Ministry, over 4,400 accidents involving electric scooters and other SIMs occurred in the country last year alone. As a result, 54 people died and more than 4,500 were injured, with one-third of them teenagers between the ages of 10 and 17.

The article Passport-only scooters: Russia discusses verification via “Gosuservices” was first published at ITZine.ru.