An ex-Uber employee is littering the streets of San Francisco with scooters that people can rent and toss anywhere - here's how they work

Bird app screenshot and Kaylee Fagan/Business Insider

Bird electric scooters are taking over San Francisco.

Bird, an electric scooter-sharing company, has covered the streets and sidewalks of San Francisco with motorized vehicles that are like Razor scooters for grown-ups.

People can reserve a local scooter from a smartphone app, ride for a small fee, and leave the scooter anywhere at the end of a journey. The result is a citywide littering of scooters.

Led by a former Uber and Lyft executive, Bird raised over $100 million in funding this year to expand across the US. But the company's rise to success hasn't been without speed bumps. This week, Bird issued a press release claiming city officials in San Francisco were trying to shut it down. San Francisco City Supervisor Aaron Peskin denied the claim to Business Insider.

I pass a dozen electric scooters on the streets of San Francisco on my daily commute, so I recently rented an electric scooter from Bird to try it myself.

Here's what it was like to rent and try the Bird electric scooter: