3 ms·
I would like to compare with a "normal" rent: 1) you are given (by a human) the keys of the car in exchange of providing your driver license and credit card 2
by jaclaz 7y ago
I would like to compare with a "normal" rent:
1) you are given (by a human) the keys of the car in exchange of providing your driver license and credit card
2) you do (within limits) whatever you want with the car
3) after the agreed upon rent period you bring back the car and keys (giving them to a human) and then the rental company checks how many miles you did (and if you exceeded the included amount you are charged, unless you got an all inclusive/unlimited mmileage contract)
I.e. the renting company actually "trusts" you (backed financially by your credit card).
And this formula worked seemigly just fine for the last 60 years or more.
A "natural" evolution would IMHO be:
1) you get pre-approved (i.e. you provide your driving license and credit card before and outside the actual rent) when you start the rent your smartphone is somehow allowed to open and start the car
2) you do (within limits) whatever you want with the car
3) after the agreed upon rent period you bring back the car in a designed area, you notify the renter of it and somehow your smartphone cannot open or start the car anymore (and at that time the mileage is checked remotely, etc.)
If this was the case the need for coverage would only be needed in the designed pick and leave area.
I fail to see any practical advantage for the renting company to collect data "realtime" (and thus need the anytime coverage).
I.e. it seems to me more like a "because I can" reason than anything else.
- dariusj18 7y agoSeems to me that it is probably some inadvised anti-theft thing.
- jaclaz 7y agoYep, but is it theft an actual "real world" problem? How has (say) Herz, Avis or Budget managed to survive all these years (and still do)? Surely rental car theft must be something rare enough to not be of concern (statistically). Besides, a car is not something designed (by the manufacturer) to be easily accessible, and if professional car thieves are going to target a vehicle, allow me to doubt that the whatever the smart peeps at GigCarShare devised is more effective than the manufacturer's and or additional third party [1] anti-theft devices. BTW, should the whatever device/system actually be much better than competing systems, they would most probably have much more imcome/profit by selling the devices/systems instead of renting cars. [1] possibly specialized since a couple decades or more in the anti-theft technology
- javagram 7y agoYes, it’s actually a serious problem. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/skbaer/chicago-rental-car-company-fraud https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/skbaer/chicago-rental-c... The problem is when your authentication is an app and a digital photo it’s a lot easier to fake who you are. At least if someone tries to go on a crime spree with traditional rentals they’re gonna be on dozens of office security cams, have to repeatedly show a physical license and have their identity checked, and so on.
- jaclaz 7y agoI meant for "traditional" rental service, where the theft is performed by someone else, not by the person that rented the car. They somehow either solved it or it doesn't represent an issue. What you linked to is possibly yet another kind of crime, the whatever app was seemingly hacked.
- werbel 7y agoThis is exactly how it works for a Polish minute car rental service Traficar. You can even drive through the whole country to another Traficar service zone, leave the car there and get back by train.
- neoromantique 7y agoSame here in Baltic's, you can take a car in Vilnius, Lithuania, and drive through Latvia and into Estonia and leave the car in Tallinn.
- Nextgrid 7y agoIt’s less about collecting data (not saying they don’t do it, but data collection failing shouldn’t prevent the car from starting) and more about not having the skill to make a offline authentication system and a way for the phone to talk to the car via Bluetooth without relying on the internet. Who wants to bet all their engineering talent was instead spent on playing with big toys like Kubernetes and chasing the latest JS framework?
- moftz 7y agoMake it a keypad to unlock the door and have a key inside to start the car. Rental company texts or emails you the code that will either work immediately or at a certain time in the future. This would require you to have internet or cell service at some point prior to the rental (not unreasonable). The code would be good for the entire time you have the rental in case you lock the key in the car. The car would only need internet at the beginning of the rental to get the new door code and the expiration date of the rental and could run unencumbered from then on. You could take this one step further and have the code be what starts the car too.