SnapRyde is about 50 percent cheaper than other car-sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft SnapRyde, the social car-sharing app where “rides happen at a lower cost” has recently expanded to the University of Wisconsin. The 1,020 user app made by the students and for the students is a cheap and easy way that tailors to students needs by connecting riders and drivers that are heading in the same direction. It works as a ride-sharing, social networking, environmentally conscious and cheap way to get around campus. The app pairs drivers and riders ahead in real-time based on their destination and is only available for students, Mayank Jain, president and CEO of SnapRyde said. Riders must be 18 years

Partnership will be announced at a press event Wednesday, August 2 Today, Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna are excited to announce that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved Volkswagen subsidiary Electrify America’s proposal to designate Sacramento as its first Green City. The investment will bring $44 million to the City of Sacramento which will include Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure designed to increase access to ZEV technology in metro areas, and in particular, disadvantaged communities. Mayor Steinberg and Supervisor Serna along with Electrify America representatives, and community stakeholders will make an official announcement

Last week, SFMTA's Board of Directors approved a full permit program for car-sharing companies after a 2013 pilot that allowed companies to use 200 public parking spaces. Under the plan, 1,000 parking spots will be converted into car-sharing spaces. “Each permitted parking space served many people, rather than just one private vehicle at a time,” wrote SFMTA in its report. It also revealed that a car could be used by as many as 19 people if it was part of a car-sharing service, compared to a private car, which usually only has two users. According to SFMTA, there are more than 140,000 users of car-sharing services in San Francisco. Cars are used an average of six hours a day, compared to the

Projections about autonomous vehicles and shared vehicle use are pervasive. In some forecasts, houses will not need driveways or garages because networks of on-demand self-driving vehicles will whisk us away whenever we want. One study posits that cost advantages of vehicle sharing over private ownership in North America will be so great that "mobility as a service" will account for 95 percent of the passenger miles driven within just 10 years. Such a future has vehicle sales, sales taxes and gasoline and diesel use plummeting as cities seek safer, less congested ways to move people. Players inside and outside the auto industry are pairing up. Waymo and Avis Budget Group just agreed to work

Wellington-based electric car-sharing start-up Mevo has its sights set on expanding to Australia and is in discussions with the City of Sydney and will be meeting with local councils and governments in Melbourne and Brisbane in August. The company, which is building up a fleet of hybrid electric Audis and offers people in Wellington a membership-based service, intends to be in five cities across Australia and New Zealand in the next five years, with up to 2000 vehicles on the road. Co-founder Erik Zydervelt told The Australian Financial Review cities such as Vancouver, Madrid and Seattle already had extensive electric car infrastructure and car-sharing schemes in place. He believes places su

Uber rival Grab has secured a new $2.5bn (£1.9bn) fundraising round, describing it as the biggest ever round of investment in South East Asia. Japan's Softbank and DiDi Chuxing, which dominates the car-sharing market in China, will invest up to $2bn, with new and current investors to provide the remaining $500m. "We're encouraged that these two visionary companies share our optimism for the future of South East Asia and its on-demand transportation and payments markets, and recognize that Grab is ideally positioned to capitalize on the massive market opportunities," said Grab chief executive Anthony Tan. "With their support, Grab will achieve an unassailable market lead in ridesharing, and b

The largest city in North America has done away with one of the biggest hidden subsidies for driving: minimum parking requirements. Mexico City eliminated requirements that force developers to build a minimum number of parking spaces in each project. The city will instead cap the number of parking spaces allowed in new development, depending on the type and size of the building. Existing parking spaces can also be converted to other uses. Mexico City Mayor Miguel Mancera signed the new regulations into effect last week. The policy change applies to every land use and throughout the entire city of 8.8 million residents. It promises to make housing more affordable, reduce traffic, and improve

Company has raised more than $110 Million Total, Funding Will Be Used to Invest in Technology, Grow Team & Enter New Markets SAN FRANCISCO, July 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Shift (shift.com), a San Francisco-based startup that combines technology and a team of car concierges to take the hassle and guesswork out of buying and selling pre-owned cars, today announced that it has raised a $38M Series C financing led by BMW iVentures, with participation from new major investors DCM Ventures and G2VP, as well as continued participation from DFJ, Highland Capital, and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. Christian Noske, a partner at BMW iVentures, has joined the Shift Board of Directors. Jason Krikoria

Shell will start installing rapid chargers at UK forecourts, with the first units due to be operational before the end of 2017. Working with EV charging firm Allego, the first units will be installed in London, Derby, and the Netherlands. With Shell’s intention to add EV charging points to forecourt announced previously, the company is ahead of forthcoming legislation announced in the Queen’s Speech last month. Charge points will have to be installed at motorway services (although there is already coverage thanks to the Electric Highway network) along with ‘large fuel retailers’, which has considerably less EV coverage currently. However, with Shell’s intention to start installing EV charge

ZipCar has announced the launch of ZipCar Flex in London, a new one-way drive-and-drop service, which the company says will take car sharing into the mainstream. Via the ZipCar app members can now choose the ZipCar Flex service to jump into a car and drive to a destination one-way, ending their trip by dropping it off in any one of the thousands of approved parking bays within the designated 'Zipzone' - a zone of 70km2 across London. ZipCar is currently the UK's largest car-sharing service and became popular through its original Roundtrip service. It aims to have one million members by 2020, and sees the new Flex service as an opportunity to persuade even more people out of car ownership and

Uber is to merge its Russian business with local competitor Yandex, after the US ride-hailing firm spent millions to build a presence in Russia and other countries in the region. Yandex, compared to a Russian Google, will own about 59% of the combined company, valued at $3.7bn (£2.9bn). The deal heads off competition from Uber, which launched in Russia in 2014. Their rivalry had fuelled a price war. Yandex's stock climbed 16% on Thursday. Tigran Khudaverdyan, who heads Yandex.Taxi and will be boss of the new company, said the combination will boost rides for drivers and reduce wait times for passengers. "This combination greatly enhances Yandex's ability to offer better quality service to ou

If you think the only way to drive electric is to buy electric, then think again. From ride sharing to car sharing, and short-term rentals to typical rental cars, the auto industry is making it easier for those without their own set of wheels to drive—or ride—electric. Following Trump's announcement of his intention to pull the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, Lyft announced that to drive climate action and electric vehicle use forward, its shared platform will provide at least 1 billion rides per year using electric autonomous vehicles by 2025. All of the autonomous vehicles on Lyft's platform are going to be powered by 100 percent renewable energy beginning with its nuTonomy vehicles

Revved up by new owner Audi, Silvercar Inc. is expanding its airport car rental services and hiring new talent as it scales up. The Austin-based transportation startup announced Monday that it will double operations in the next 18 months. That includes reaching new markets on both coasts: Silvercar is launching in Seattle on July 31 and Orlando on Aug. 28. Reservations opened Monday. Once those two cities are online, Silvercar will be active in more than a dozen markets. The company, launched in 2012, operates a car rental platform accessed entirely by app and using all silver Audi A4s. The German automaker bought Silvercar earlier this year for an undisclosed amount and kept Luke Schneider

The first carsharing service "up" has launched in Slovakia. City has opened its first location in downtown Bratislava. Volkswagen Slovakia is one of the partners of the carsharing service. The usual taxis in front of the Old Market-hall in downtown Bratislava have been replaced by white electric cars, the Sme daily wrote on July 5. Aliancia Stará Tržnica, Volkswagen Slovakia and other partners are launching the first car-sharing service in Slovakia, called up! city. The first seven white electric Volkswagen e-Up! cars can be rented from the SNP square. The cost is €25 for a half-day or €35 for the whole day, and a minimum card balance of €300 is required to rent the cars. The company will la

Abrams CarSharing Advisors can help you develop and launch your On-Demand mobility service

Early this year, a paper in PNAS using a computer model estimated that car sharing services like Uber and Lyft could reduce the number of taxi vehicles on roads by ~76% without significantly impacting travel time. As Joe Cortright has said, the authors are overly optimistic. There is another study from last year that analyzed what actually happened to congestion levels when Uber entered the market in some US cities (abstract below). The results of this study are not really comparable to the the paper in PNAS, though. The methods are sound but I have the impression the authors pay too much attention to the statistical significance of the results and do not really discuss the magnitude of the

Last week, Volkswagen (VW) cemented its interest in establishing an electric vehicle (EV) carsharing network in California's capital city of Sacramento. The auto manufacturer, as a part of the $14.7 billion settlement caused by the 2015 diesel emissions scandal, will devote $44 million to build out its first “Green City,” or network of electric vehicle charging stations and EV carsharing services. The hope is that this carsharing network will expose a lower-income demographic to the benefits of driving zero-emission vehicles, according to the Sacramento Bee. Sacramento was tentatively chosen in March of this year as the first of four potential Green Cities. Los Angeles community leaders atte

The New York Times reports news that ride-hailing has returned to New York state and Long Island after a two-year battle by Lyft, Via, Uber and others to lift the ban on their carsharing services. Among the reasons for the ban were concerns about the type of insurance these companies carry for their drivers. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (D) pushed the new law to put ride-hailing services under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Motor Vehicles instead of individual cities and towns. “Extending ridesharing across New York is a matter of fairness that brings new transportation options and — with it — new economic opportunity and innovation,” Cuomo said in a statement on June 6. A complemen