Posted on 01/21/2016 9:42:21 AM PST by Citizen Zed
General Motors Co. has launched a car-sharing service that lets users reserve and unlock vehicles with their smartphones.
The service, called Maven, debuted Thursday in Ann Arbor, Mich., and will initially focus on serving students and faculty at the University of Michigan. GM vehicles are to be available at 21 spots throughout the city.
Users can rent a car through a free smartphone app, which is also used to unlock the vehicle, GM said.
The company said Maven would expand to additional cities later this year.
"With the launch of our car-sharing service through Maven, the strategic alliance with ride-sharing company Lyft and building on our decades of leadership in vehicle connectivity through OnStar, we are uniquely positioned to provide the high level of personalized mobility services our customers expect," GM President Dan Ammann said in a statement.
The launch of Maven comes days after the news that GM acquired the assets of ride-hailing company Sidecar Technologies Inc. The San Francisco company had shut down at the end of last year.
Also this month, GM invested $500 million in ride-sharing service Lyft.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
In other words, if you’ve bought a new vehicle, the manufacturer still has ultimate control over whether it runs or not. Keys are passe’.
A service for both people that have never heard of Uber and yet own smart phones.
Ed Wallace, an auto guy on the radio in Dallas, asked a really good question: If you are fresh out of college with your very first real job and you have some money to buy your very first brand new car and you have a choice between a Mustang and a smart car renting service - which one are you gonna choose?
If you were to make a Venn diagram of that, the 2 circles would touch at a point that is an atom’s width in size.
When public transportation is not dirty enough.
...
That’s why I have bus pants.
This is a hi tech rental service, and GM has found another good use for OnStar (only took them a couple of decades).
It will be interesting to see what the insurance companies have to say about this.
“In other words, if you’ve bought a new vehicle, the manufacturer still has ultimate control over whether it runs or not. Keys are passe’.”
???
Seinfeld and episode the BO in his car
what can possibly go wrong?
Yeah, that’ll work. /s
Good point!
I have often said that that was one of the goals for “Cash for Clunkers”. Can’t have vehicles on the road that can’t be stopped with a key stroke.
That’s why I have bus pants.
***
LOL!
If you can use a smartphone to rent a car, and unlock and start it the same way, then who really decides whether the car runs or not?
The GM Onstar app has been used several times by the police to stop fleeing felons. It has also been used by hundreds if not thousands of people to unlock their vehicle when they leave the keys in accidentally.
Who is to say that the same app won’t be used to shut down the vehicles driven by “persons of interest” by the all-powerful gov’t?
Points, condenser and mechanical carburetor are the only way that your vehicle will NOT be tamperable by outside forces.
With the average college grad making $48,000 and the average new car costing $34,000 I don’t think many buy a brand new car.
In fact, many in the new generation have to be coerced by parents to learn how to drive. They see it as an annoyance, not a right of passage to freedom. It’s the level of connectivity, they’re always connected. They’d rather spend their money on a better phone, internet connection, etc..
It wouldn’t surprise me that GM is doing this especially because of this trend. It’s a different way to get customers they otherwise might not get anything from.
Guys are guys and when given the chance they are going to buy something they want which is usually sporty not something girlie like a smart car or a service they can rent. Nope. They want to own their dream. And if GM thinks they are going to change many millennia of guys being guys they will lose what made them the number one car company.
In Cuba, they drove the American dream after Cuba fell to the dream-squashing marxists. During these many years they kept repairing their dreams because they couldn't buy a new one from the States.
This is not new. Uhaul operates a car sharing service through its affialites in various cities across the country. Portland Maine has several cars spread throughout the intown area. After you register with Uhaul, you just reserve a car near where you live. Go put the unlock code in and drive off. Handy for going shopping, etc. There is even a pickup available in one place.
Census info shows only about 20% of intown folks in Portland actually own a car. Portland would be unlivable if the other 80% owned a car. They would have no place to park them.
There is also another company whose name escapes me.
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