White Fox Scooters

Over the summer of 2020, I worked as a Mechanical Design Engineer for White Fox Scooters - the first dock-to-dock electric scooter ride share company. In the attempt to solve the problems that most other electric scooter ride share companies have, White Fox Scooters consists of smart docking stations that scooters must be picked up from and returned to, reducing clutter on the sidewalks as well as ensuring every scooter has the power to be taken for a ride. Though I am unable to go into too much detail on all the designs I produced while working here, please see a little bit about what my role entailed and as well as the products the company has publicly released (Figure 1)!

During my time with White Fox Scooters, I worked on three major projects: designing a new smart docking station, the signage that would both attract consumers and express the function of the product, and an adapter to connect the scooter to the docking station and house electronic components.

While designing the new docking station, my primary focus was the aesthetic appeal of the station as consumers passed it walking around the neighborhood and how efficiently and cost-effectively it could be manufactured (Figure 2). Another important piece was the point where the scooter would meet the inside wall of the docking station so it could connect and begin charging. After determining the overall look of the station, I designed each part that would be assembled in Solidworks and then worked with manufacturers overseas to get it fabricated. This included material selection, editing the design based on the manufacturing process, and keeping in close contact with the manufacturers as the process occurred.

The biggest focus of the signage, which included both the large posters near docking stations to instruct riders as well as the incorporation of the logo into the overall aesthetics of the scooter and docking station, was to make it simple and attractive to consumers. Different from many of the mechanical design challenges I typically had, this was an exciting chance to incorporate Illustrator and Photoshop drawings into the typical manufacturing process.

The final project I worked on with White Fox Scooters was an adapter between the scooter and docking station. The goal of the adapter was to allow riders to simply ride the scooter into the dock to begin charging it, eliminating the need for messy cords to plug the scooter in and saving the rider a little time and connecting to the docking station via four pogo pins instead (Figure 3). The primary challenge with this project was keeping the adapter compact while housing the electronics necessary as well as ensuring it created a seamless connection to make the user’s experience as easy as possible. The electronics were thus hidden with the adapter, and a cable ran from the circuit board up through the adapter to connect to the power input on the neck of the scooter (Figure 5). This part was designed to be several pieces 3D printed out of nylon and connected by nuts and bolts to allow for the flexibility in its form around the neck of the scooter and the electronic components and an easy assembly process (Figure 6).