Globalstar Inc (GSAT)

[E E Euthanasia]

Google’s Latest Search: What Happened to Its Bikes?
Local residents tend to ride off with the free bicycles Google provides for employees to get around its giant headquarters in Mountain View
https://www.wsj.com/articles/googles-latest-search-what-happened-to-its-bikes-1515172167
excerpt:

"MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Google has built a massive business organizing the world’s information, but it’s having a lot of trouble keeping track of its own bicycles.

Google maintains roughly 1,100 free, multicolored two-wheelers, known as Gbikes, for its employees to get around on its sprawling campus here. The program has inspired copycats across Silicon Valley and beyond.

But Google’s bikes consistently go missing from its campus—between 100 and 250 a week, the company estimates. The bikes have shown up at local schools, in neighbors’ lawns, at the bottom of the town creek and on the roof of O’Malley’s Sports Pub. One turned up in a TV commercial for the cosmetics brand Garnier; a Google employee noticed it when it aired. [...]"

the solution to the "What Happened to the GBike(s)?" would be to have a (cheap & small) Globalstar satellite based SPOT TRACE tracker attached to/or imbedded in/on each Gbike, viz.:

"SPOT TRACE® Track Anything. Anytime. Anywhere.®
SPOT Trace offers affordable theft recovery for all your gear.
SPOT Trace offers affordable theft recovery for all your gear.
Receive text/email messages when movement is detected
Satellite technology tracks where cell phones don't
Monitor assets in near real-time using Google Maps™
Long battery life, compact and easy to install
Select from 2½, 5, 10, 30 or 60 minute tracking intervals

The SPOT Trace offers advanced theft-alert tracking for anything. Instantly receive a text or email when your most valuable assets move anywhere, or follow them on Google Maps anytime on your phone or computer."

https://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=128

Farmers, for example, have been using these devices to keep track of their wandering Sheep and Cattle herds with great success, viz.:

https://eu.globalstar.com/en/index.php?cid=7010&pressId=830