The challenges in developing and launching a successful CarShare, RideShare, or On-Demand rental business is qualifying for fleet financing

Yesterday, residents of the greater Phoenix metropolitan area can sign up to go for a ride in a self-driving minivan. As often as they want. For free. Waymo, the self-driving car startup spun off from Google late last year, announced today that it’s offering its services to members of the public for the first time. Waymo is calling it an “early rider program,” intent on cataloguing how on-demand, driverless cars will factor into people’s everyday lives. Interested participant

Fleets that assign sedans to individual employees are vastly oversized and could be reduced by 50% by adopting car sharing with no loss of service. So says Julian Espiritu, managing director of Abrams Carsharing Advisors. The 28-year veteran of the car rental and car sharing industries made that remark in a wide-ranging interview with Fleet Management Weekly on the fastest-growing means of obtaining access to an automobile. Espiritu was one of the pioneers at Zipcar, the wor

Mercedes-Benz is expanding its “Croove” private car sharing program, introducing the platform in Berlin four months after it started a pilot program in Munich. The German premium car brand, which belongs to the Daimler Group, said Croove is part of a strategy to move away from merely building and selling cars and become a mobility provider with offerings across a broad range of activities. Croove, which is open to vehicles of all makes, lets participants set their own price f

Daimler-owned service provider to drive ahead with key expansion plans The car-sharing market in China is about to experience explosive growth in the coming three to five years and Car2go China Co Ltd－the Daimler-owned car-sharing business－is strategically prepared to ride the market boom, its CEO said. "Many organizations and institutions are extremely positive about the outlook for the sharing-car market in China. Instead of predicting figures, I would like to say that sh

Above: Getaround founder and CEO Sam Zaid. Peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing company Getaround has raised $45 million in a round of funding led by Braemar Energy Ventures, with participation from Toyota, Shanghai Automotive’s VC arm, Menlo Ventures, and Triangle Peak Partners. Founded in 2009, Getaround offers a mobile app and marketplace for owners to rent out their cars when they’re not using them. Yes, it’s like an Airbnb for automobiles. Through the Getaround app, renters can

AAA Launches Gig, a One-Way Car-Sharing Service AAA is getting in on the car-sharing game with a new service that allows drivers to pick up a car and leave it anywhere they want. It's no secret that things like self-driving cars, car-sharing services, and electric powertrains have incredible potential to disrupt the traditional automotive environment. But what about other entities based around the current auto industry model? The American Automobile Association, better known

The tides are turning on the poster child of the gig economy. Uber’s “disruptive” approach has up until now attracted investors like flies, leading to its valuation snowballing to $69bn. However, a string of allegations about sexual harassment, intellectual property theft and driver manipulation have called into question the aggressiveness of its expansion practices. Consumer rights activist group SumOfUs has mapped more than 100 alleged incidents from news reports on a websi

The car-sharing market in China is booming, in part as the government responds to mobility and pollution issues faced by residents of some of its largest cities. While the market is projected to increase its fleet size from 26,000 vehicles last year to more than 100,000 by 2020, break even business models remain fleeting. A new report considers the wider market dynamics, the challenges that lie ahead, as well as possible ways towards self-sufficiency within the industry. Many

SAN FRANCISCO, April 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Getaround, the leading peer-to-peer car-sharing platform, announced its expansion into the Tri-State New Jersey area. Now, car owners in Hoboken, Jersey City and Weehawken can earn money by renting out their cars. Those without cars can easily discover and rent cars by the hour using the Getaround website, iOS or Android apps. With over 30,000 users between Northern New Jersey and New York City looking to rent cars this spri