SAN FRANCISCO — Uber chose Dara Khosrowshahi, who leads the online travel company Expedia, to be its chief executive on Sunday, two people with knowledge of the decision said. The selection capped a contentious search process as the ride-hailing company seeks to move past a turbulent period. Mr. Khosrowshahi emerged as the leading candidate from a field of three finalists over a weekend of Uber board meetings, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details were confidential. One finalist, Jeffrey R. Immelt, the former chief of General Electric, withdrew on Sunday when it became clear that he did not have enough support, said two people familiar with the process.

Toyota is expanding its presence in the car sharing arena by announcing a new partnership with its Hawaiian distributor Servco Pacific. Under the terms of the deal, the two companies will test and develop a car sharing service in Honolulu. During the initial testing phase, the service will be limited to employees. However, once testing is complete, Servco plans to launch a consumer-focused car sharing business by the end of 2017. According to Toyota, users will download a smartphone application which provides driver identification and authentication as well as a Smart Key Box that allows them to lock and unlock vehicles with their phone. The app, which was designed in-house, will also

Collectible vehicle insurer Hagerty has acquired the Classics&Exotics peer-to-peer online vehicle sharing service, more or less an Airbnb for classic and exotic cars, and is relaunching it as DriveShare by Hagerty. It’s bit more complicated than the typical car rental arrangement – customers must be at least 30 years old and have their driving history vetted and approved before participating, and both a $500 security deposit and a nominal service charge are required with each rental – but these are far from being Hertz- or Avis-grade rides. For example, if you’re planning a trip away from the urban jungle to a more organically carved area where the roads wind and twist around themselves like

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German carmakers Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and BMW (BMWG.DE) may be in talks to combine their car-sharing services Car2Go and DriveNow, the chief executive of car rental company and DriveNow partner Sixt (SIXG.DE) hinted on Thursday. Daimler and BMW have discussed pooling their car-sharing businesses to better compete against ride-hailing companies like Uber [UBER.UL] and Lyft which have started offering pay-per-use mobility services which are more convenient than car ownership. Asked whether Sixt was involved in merger talks with Daimler and BMW, Chief Executive Erich Sixt said: "At the last press conference I made clear that we are not involved. Today I can only say 'no comm

Will a City supported carshare program help reduce car ownership in Brooklyn? The NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) intends to find out with a two-year pilot program launching this Fall. While the agency will not run a carshare service, it will designate parking spaces on-street and in municipal parking facilities to carshare companies participating in the pilot. NYC DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg announced at the end of 2016 the launch of a two-year citywide pilot that will dedicate approximately 300 parking spaces in municipal parking facilities and another 300 street parking spaces in select neighborhoods exclusively to participating carshare companies. Where Are The Carshare

“The transportation business is evolving,” said Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting Group, which does advisory work for the rental car industry. “The companies that stand still are left in the dust.” At the dawn of America’s automobile age, a Nebraskan by the name of Joe Saunders came up with a wild idea: He’d rent his Ford Model T to traveling salesmen. Today, 101 years later, his figurative heirs — Saunders later sold out to a Chicagoan named Hertz — confront an existential question: Can the U.S. car-rental business thrive in the era of Uber, Lyft and, one day, autonomous vehicles? The answer, so far, isn’t pretty. Losses at Hertz Global Holdings Inc. are piling up and Avis Budget

GM expands its car sharing service for Uber and Lyft drivers Maven Gig, the car-sharing service for gig economy workers owned by General Motors, is expanding to a few more cities. Starting today, the service is available in Los Angeles. Later this fall, it will launch in Boston, Phoenix, and Washington, DC. And Baltimore and Detroit will follow soon after. The program is aimed at drivers for rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft, and delivery apps like Postmates, GrubHub, and InstaCart. Someone who’s interested in driving for any of these on-demand services, but doesn’t own a vehicle, can rent a Chevy Bolt through Maven Gig for $229-a-week. The weekly price includes insurance, maintenance, and e

South Korea’s second-largest automaker Kia Motors Corp. said on Tuesday that it will launch a car sharing service later this week under the new mobility service brand WiBLE. The automaker’s move comes as part of efforts to ride on the bourgeoning car-sharing business and demand in Korea. According to Kia Motors, the company’s trial car sharing service will be offered to residents living in the second complex of Cheonwang Yeonji Town in Guro, western Seoul. It will place 9 vehicles including Soul electric vehicle, Niro sport utility vehicle, and Carnival minivan within the complex so that residents can rent them at a low price. All they have to do is download the WiBLE application and reser

Hyundai Motor Co. and Hyundai Capital Services Inc. will jointly launch a car sharing service next month, allowing people to rent and pick up a car for a short-distance ride in Seoul and around the capital. An unnamed Hyundai Capital official said on Sunday the car sharing service ‘Deal Car’ is in the final stage of launching the service.. The Hyundai-owned car sharing service is similar to startup competitors like Socar and Green Car. But the service by the conglomerate is different from smaller peers as it includes a car delivery option for users. Once a user selects a car type, driving time and a pick-up point on a smartphone app, Hyundai Capital, the app operator, allocates a car ren

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 7, 2017 /CNW/ -- car2go N.A., North America's largest flexible one-way carsharing service, saw a significant increase in use of its service during the first six months of 2017. Usage of car2go increased by 40 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016 across all 11 of the service's North American locations, with more than 4.5 million trips taken so far this year. car2go members have also spent 33 percent more time traveling in car2gos in the first half of 2017 versus the first half of 2016, indicating that one-way carshare is gaining popularity as a convenient, affordable way to travel over varying distances. "car2go is an increasi

On August 3rd BelkaCar with a strategic partnership with Mercedes Benz RUS JSC launched "BelkaBlack,"the first premium CarShare service in Russia. BelkaBlack will offer 100 Mecedes Benz CLAs with plans to grow the fleet to 200 vehicles by the end of 2017. According to BelkaCar, the service addresses the demand and feedback from their corporate users for a "higher level of service and comfort" similar service offered by DriveNow and Car2Go. For more information about BelkaBlack, see attached Press Release or contact: Контакты: Екатерина Макарова – сооснователь BelkaCar +7 (903) 191-34-85 emakarova@belkacar.ru Яна Басаранович +7 (916) 248-94-02 yana@whybconsult.com

Rental-car companies, the industry's largest buyers and sellers of light vehicles, face a slew of challenges that threaten their earnings in the short term and their business model in the long term. Like automakers, the rental industry has a business model that's been largely static for decades. It's ripe for disruption from the likes of ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft and from a potential future in which autonomous vehicle fleets could make the very idea of renting a vehicle to drive obsolete, analysts say. As the rental companies begin to grapple with their futures, they must also deal with more immediate challenges. Namely, they must find a way to get more crossovers and SUVs