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Uber is launching Uber Rent, a rental car service with Getaround
- wehadfun 9y agoSo you can rent a car on Uber and then use that car to Uber people around?
- myroon5 9y agoI interpreted this as being an option for riders, not drivers.
- exhaze 9y agoNot quite. This article is about riders being able to rent cars for their own personal trips. There is a separate flow for partners to be able to rent a car from Getaround to drive for Uber [1], which has been around for about a year. [1] https://www.uber.com/newsroom/getaround/ https://www.uber.com/newsroom/getaround/
- dangrossman 9y agoUber already has discounted weekly rentals through Hertz, Uber Xchange short-term car leases from select dealers, and Uber Financing where the driver buys a new car from Nissan/Toyota/Hyundai at special pricing with unlimited maintenance included and the monthly finance payment comes out of their monthly Uber check automatically.
- zethraeus 9y agoYes, even through getaround. Uber does provide this as a service for drivers. But this announcement is about a rider side product.
- noahmbarr 9y agoHard to believe Uber did this without some sort of equity ownership in Getaround...
- lavezzi 9y agoI don't know how popular Getaround is in other parts of the country, but I get the impression they are struggling in Chicago. They definitely need Uber's support here
- swozey 9y agoI'm a pretty frequent car renter (Turo) and haven't heard of Getaround at all.
- joeblau 9y agoGetAround is big in SF. I did an interview there about 5 years ago and I also used their services supplementing ZipCar. The cars for GetAround were a lot nicer, but the experience of getting the keys was sometimes tricky if there wasn't good wifi.
- throwaway413 9y agoSame. I’m a weekly renter, I’ve googled around for competing services, and have literally never heard of Getaround.
- rco8786 9y agoJust as a counterpoint - I’ve never heard of Turo but have used Getaround probably 30 times.
- throwaway413 9y agoTouché. I just tried Getaround but hasn’t launched in my area yet.
- rajeshpant 9y agoThey might have analyzed them as an organization and even though they are not big and doing well, they might have seen them something that will integrate well within their current business process & org.
- bitrazor123 9y agoWill Uber allow their driver to rent a car and then serve users? this way drivers can avoid commission cut to Uber. I am sure Uber is not naive.
- SmellTheGlove 9y agoUber already has rental programs for its drivers (see upthread). But how would this allow a driver to avoid commissions to uber?
- vthallam 9y agoThis kind of makes sense. If the car owners are at some random place in the city, Uber could drive them there for pick up and offer ride backs.
- rco8786 9y agoAt least in SF, there are (were) tons of cars all around the city for rent with Getaround. I had 10-15 within easy walking distance from my last apt there. I even had my couple of favorites that I rented on a regular basis to take off for the weekend.
- username223 9y agoI enjoyed the response I saw from some wag on Twitter: "So when can I rent a train?" Soon, I would guess, as long as Uber gets its cut.
- Finnucane 9y agohttps://www.amtrak.com/charter-your-private-train https://www.amtrak.com/charter-your-private-train
- rrix2 9y agoAmtrak just announced they were shuttering that program at the end of March: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/amtrak-will-no-longer-operate-charter-services-special-trains/article_d41dc911-d3a0-5890-a50b-ef18af95a98f.html http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/amtrak-will-no-longer-op...
- Finnucane 9y agoAw, poo.
- Finnucane 9y ago"Getaround sees its car rentals, . ..helping to move Americans away from private car ownership." Except that it depends on private car ownership in order to have cars to rent. If you really want to get away from private car ownership, a service like Zipcar that maintains its own fleet would be a better way to go. But Getaround doesn't want the hassle of owning the cars either; it just wants to collect its cut and leave the hassle to others.
- zethraeus 9y agoGetaround has a bunch of fake owner accounts with automated help lines which I think are actually owned-fleet vehicles.
- cody3222 9y agoI think these are actual users who have made so much money renting one car out that they made a business out of buying and renting multiple cars on the platform.
- staticautomatic 9y agoBingo. Check out how many of the Porsches on Getaround and especially Turo are owned by the same people.
- Swizec 9y agoI recently rented a car from a gentleman who said he runs a business taking care of the hassle for others. Manages 10+ cars as his full time job. That was the most pleasant experience I ever had renting a car for Turo/Getaround. So the question becomes, why aren't they providing this level of service? Why is the experience so shitty for their vehicle providers that they have to go through a middle man to make it bearable?
- swozey 9y agoYeah, I have a lot of issues with Turo (mostly lack of customer service) but when I find people with specific fleets of vehicles I like (Jeeps usually) I aim for them as they usually make it stupid simple to pick up/drop off which is the huge benefit of Turo. That and renting more unique cars (like Wrangler Rubicons, Porsches if I'm visiting Woodside, etc).
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 9y agoThere seems to be a flurry of activity from Uber recently. I wonder if the failure of their self-driving tech as evidenced by the pedestrian death and the subsequent suspension of their self driving program spooked them. The HN take on Uber's valuation seems to be that their current model of paying people to drive does not justify their valuation, but becoming the dominant ride service with self driving cars does. With their crash and Tesla's crash, maybe people are questioning just how soon real, usable self driving cars will actually be available, and Uber is scrambling to try to jump into new markets to try to prop up their valuation.
- SmellTheGlove 9y agoThese kinds of deals don't materialize in 2 weeks. It's more likely that this has been in the works for months and is now finalized/announced. I don't work at Uber or anything, so this is a guess based on past experience elsewhere, but I'm pretty confident that this didn't get cooked up in the wake of their most recent incident.
- wpietri 9y agoWhat you say is true, but I could well believe that Uber was already looking at the progress of their self-driving tech and wanting to hedge their bets. Plenty of reasonable people [1] believe we won't have true autonomous taxis anytime soon. [1] E.g., MIT robotics professor and iRobot founder Rodney Brooks https://rodneybrooks.com/my-dated-predictions/ https://rodneybrooks.com/my-dated-predictions/
- SmellTheGlove 9y agoThis is true. Any competent business is looking at hedging its risks and diversifying its offerings. I was just disagreeing with the hypothesis that this was cooked up in the wake of the most recent crash. The turnaround on that would be way too fast.
- astura 9y agoThey had to be in the works previously - These sorts of deals require more time to negotiate than has passed since the pedestrian incident.
- alphabettsy 9y agoThis could potentially be crushing for Turo which seems to struggle to get noticed, maybe Zipcar as well.
- foolfoolz 9y agozip car is crushing itself. they only recently started allowing rentals over 24 hours. most require round trips. or if not a round trip, return to a zip car parking spot. it’s just slightly less inconvenient than a traditional rental car at a higher price. i have a really hard time imagining when zip car would be the best choice for any driving needs
- astura 9y agoFWIW Zipcar is owned by Avis Budget Group which also owns Avis, Budget, and Payless Car Rentals. So, from a pure data perspective, I think they have enough information to determine pricing that makes them money.
- fosk 9y agoCorrect - ZipCar is not cheaper than traditional rentals, but it gives me something that Hertz, Enteprise, etc for some reason cannot commit to: no BS and time accuracy. I don’t want to wait in line or deal with their representative upselling me a thousand addons, I don’t want to think. I’d rather show up and hop into a car, a-la ZipCar, without having to spend 20 minutes talking to anybody or figuring out what insurance I should choose.
- ghaff 9y agoI know a couple in SF who don't have a car and, AFAIK, they still use Zipcar and a competitor. My understanding is that one of their common cases is running around on a weekend to shop. One of the advantages over rentals is they can pick one up closer to their place. I do have to believe that the (subsidized) Uber and Lyft rides has had an impact on their business. And this is a business that probably didn't end up being as big or disruptive as people thought it would be in the first place anyway.
- cowsandmilk 9y ago
- SubiculumCode 9y agoIt seems that the value of Uber/Lyft is their names, and the setting up markets of drivers that have had some sort of verification, and providing a unified mobile hailing interface for customers to use. I don't see the part of their businesses that couldn't be done as well by some decentralized or non-profit entity, except perhaps the identification and verification of drivers and their vehicles.
- lancesells 9y agoApp install, notifications and credit cards info are a huge part of their value along with their brand.
- nlh 9y agoIt’s pretty clear now that Uber’s goal is to own the solution to “I need transportation”, not just be a fancy taxi company. It’s ambitious for sure. I need transportation: For 5 minutes, and cheap? Grab an Uber Scooter. For 30 minutes, with sunshine? Grab an Uber Bike For 30 minutes, quickly? Grab an UberX/UberPool/UberBlack, etc. For a weekend? Grab an Uber Rent. If you frame their goal in these terms, it gives you a pretty good idea what other sort of deals we’ll see coming down the road (boats, aircraft, scooters, etc.)
- escapecharacter 9y agoI can't wait until I can order a horse/camel via app.
- DenisM 9y agoAlso, Uber Train, Uber Spaceship, Uber Rollerblades ondemand rental, Uber-Nike running shoe sharing, and of course the coveted Uber Slippers for those lazy Sunday afternoon trips to the kitchen... I am still unsure how I fell about the Uber Sofa for the essential null-travel events.
- twic 9y agoYawn, wake me up when UberSPACEHOPPER comes out.
- throwaway413 9y agoUber Sofa. Brilliant.
- designcode 9y agoI think the best thing about Uber Sofa is the ability to pay surge prices to get the best spot.
- matte_black 9y agoYou guys laugh, but an Uber for snatching up a guaranteed last minute seat on demand at any event or queue would be amazing. I’d love it. I feel Uber is not just about transportation, it’s about private services, to make you feel part of a privileged elite with no time to waste.
- mvid 9y agoI imagine most Getaround car owners didn't imagine that their cars would be rented for commercial purposes, ground to the absolute maximum usage and having potentially dozens of strangers enter per day. Hopefully this feature is opt in, but given my experience working for and using Getaround, I know it probably isn't.
- chrisseaton 9y ago> I imagine most Getaround car owners didn't imagine that their cars would be rented for commercial purposes ...but isn't this what Getaround is already? An app you can advertise your car for hire on? Uber just helps you get more of the hire-outs you were already looking for?
- mvid 9y agoRenting your car to your neighbor for a weekend in Tahoe is different from renting your car to Yellow Cab. The community/neighborly/collaborative consumption angle was heavily advertised by Getaround, and while this is technically still within the terms, I think it is disingenuous.
- designcode 9y agoYou could just delist your car if it's an issue
- alephnan 9y agoAny guesses whether this means subsidized rentals, in accordance with their winner-take-all model, to price-out competitors like Zipcar? On a related note, does anyone know about Zipcar’s business model? Are they focused on unit economics / profitability instead of growth? I’ve been using it ever since they marketed on our college campus with student discounts 5 years ago, but there hasn’t been much updates to the web UI. Maybe this is for the better.
- ghaff 9y agoAvis bought them and they've been much lower profile as a "hot hip company" since then. In retrospect, they were a fairly niche play and Uber/Lyft seems to have taken what wind there was in their sales largely out. Based on pricing that people have told me, it doesn't seem to be discounting for growth.
- alephnan 9y agoThat’s interesting because for my use-cases, ridesharing and on-demand car rentals are substitutable goods. Ever since I moved to SF where ridesharing is noticeably more cost effective, I’ve shifted my more towards ride sharing. If prices on car rentals goes down with this Uber deal, I see myself shifting back in the other direction.
- mattnewton 9y agoIt’s not so much in a city: ridesharing is a superset of usecasses for me that eventually led me to cancel my zipcar, since they only served the road trip case that a proper car rental does just as well. Having to walk to the car and return it in the same place is a huge hassle, and then having to drive the thing and gas it up puts it much closer to competing with rentals to me.
- alephnan 9y agoOne use case where I default to Zipcar is picking up furniture / big items. Also, I like hiking in Muir Woods but there is no cellphone signal there. You can book a trip to, but not a trip from. Another one is when I want some privacy.
- velobro 9y agoSigh. Yet another Rent-A-Car service that people won't use. I'm tired of these countless companies taking up reserved spots in parking lots. Edit: I ride my bike to BART and use it to get into the city 90% of the time. However, it's been raining a lot in SF recently so I've been forced to drive a couple days. Literally half the available spots at my parking lot of choice are reserved for these services. Most of the time they are empty.
- 45h34jh53k4j 9y agoYou never want to actually lend your car to randoms -- as anyone who has ever driven a loaner car (fleet), these cars are ruined. People drive like maniacs -- its not their car! This is a sure way to get your car messed up.
- kevin_b_er 9y agoSo Uber is a middleman car rental agency that outsources all risk to the real car owners, while taking a nice profit?
- walrus01 9y agoI think this is their answer to Turo?
- rootsudo 9y agoGood, anything to kill Turo is welcomed. I dislike Turo being itself. Horrible customer service and user experience. With more players and competition, the consumer wins.
- mvid 9y agoHahaha you haven't used Getaround, have you
- somberi 9y agoAs a non-car owner and an occasional renter, I find Zipcar is cheaper because it includes insurance. Regular rental companies charge about $20 per day ($10 each for liability and collision) extra. Zipcar has a fixed mileage ceiling per day, so for long hauls regular rentals may be better.
- trevorcreech 9y agoGetaround also includes insurance