5 ms·

Getaround Wins TechCrunch Disrupt

35 points by ssclafani 15y ago

minalecs 15y ago
Anyone know how it would effect my own insurance knowing that random people will be driving my car on top of the extra mileage? Also what about extra maintenance involved with renting out my car, are there any incentives from Getaround concerning this ? Another concern would be that, yes in general people that rent cars may not be as responsible with their rental as their own car.
- joeguilmette 15y ago
  Getaround comes with insurance, so while being rented your own insurance is unaffected! As far as maintenance costs, you set your car's own price per hour, so you can decide how much your extra maintenance costs will be.
  - TheSkeptic 15y ago
    Insurance is a red herring IMHO. * Have you ever dealt with a major insurance claim? Even if you were renting out your car for $100/hour, that won't compensate for the headache you will be in for when your renter rear ends a brand new Mercedes-Benz and sends the passengers to the hospital. * Think beyond insurance. What are you going to do when you receive a parking ticket or red light camera violation in the mail that a renter was responsible for? In the case of the parking ticket, you're on the hook no matter what. * Even worse, if your renter is involved in an accident that's reported to Carfax, the resale/trade-in value of your car could plummet. * There are no incentives great enough to compensate for all of the possible extra maintenance and repairs you may have to deal with. Depending on the make and model of your car, even a small ding or scratch could cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to repair.
    - bumbledraven 15y ago
      Your second point is addressed in the getaround FAQ. In short, "Getaround will pay the ticket and take up the dispute with the renter." http://support.getaround.com/kb/policies/what-happens-if-a-renter-receives-a-parking-ticket-or-other-violation http://support.getaround.com/kb/policies/what-happens-if-a-r...
    - kjksf 15y ago
      Those are all valid issues. Consider, however, that every time you rent your room on AirBnB you open up yourself to as many problems (what if they steal from you; what if they damage your room; what if they cause a fire) and yet that hasn't stopped AirBnB from being a smashing success. There's little point in opinionating on their chances of success. So far the signup rates seem to be fantastic and whether they're successful or not will become evident with time. We just have to wait a little.
compnerd 15y ago
How would they prevent a group of car thieves from using prepaid Master or Visa cards with fake names? Couldn't a thief just book a rental car for an hour, find the location, unlock the car with the iphone app, then take off with the car because the key will be inside? Let me know if I am missing something?
- TheSkeptic 15y ago
  You don't even need to steal the car. You could simply take the the most valuable parts. Some parts can be taken without the owner knowing. Example: air bags. If you rented your car out, you would never know that your air bag was missing until you actually needed it.
  - jaxn 15y ago
    Wouldn't that hold true for regular rental cars too? I have never heard of this being a problem with rentals. Maybe TheSkeptic (brand new account) is a competitor?
    - jacobian 15y ago
      Maybe TheSkeptic (brand new account) is a competitor? Ugh, that's a shitty attitude. I think one of the good things about HN is that people here usually give each other the benefit of the doubt and assume good intentions. Lobbing accusations of bias around are a good way to kill that friendly tone. Unless you've got actual proof of bias perhaps you could keep your accusations to yourself next time?
      - jaxn 15y ago
        I think it is a fair question. Brand new account, only posting in this one thread, with pretty flimsy criticisms, and a screen name specifically indicating a negative bias. I did look into it before posting. I think it is also pretty shitty to use throwaway accounts without disclosure and a reason.
- jacobian 15y ago
rvanniekerk 15y ago
What about the issue of car thieves in general? From the sound of it, you are required to keep your keys inside the vehicle. The founders basically said "the keys will be in the ignition". Is there no locking component of any sort included in the getaround kit? Doesn't this essentially make the application a directory of easy-to-steal cars for potential thieves?
dotBen 15y ago
This is one of those ideas which wins hearts at a conference like TC but I don't get in terms of practicality. Aside from the issues already stated, let's consider: Keeping the key in the car (if you want to use their preferred auto-key-box-thingy) - I can't believe that wouldn't adversely effect or void my insurance. Certainly the part where I get a discount for an immobilizer is going to be negated (because the immobilizer is in the key, now in the car). And parking a car in SoMa with the ignition in it seems totally dumb - insured or otherwise. It may come with insurance but that still doesn't cover someone driving the shit out of the breaks, clutch, drive train etc. How do you account for fuel - you can't say bring it back with a full tank because you may not keep a full tank in there. How do you account for the extra miles the car is run for with your own insurance? How much are car owners really going to make a month after they have taken their cut? If you own a decent car, is $100/month really pushing the needle and making it worth your while? I still wonder about the premis - how many people REALLY want to share their car with others. I won't let me best friend drive my car (or anyone else for that matter). Finally, from the renters side, I'm not clear what benefit this has over ZipCars. I don't pay an annual membership with ZipCar, they're ~$6/hr, fuel is included (which it isn't here), they have distribution and choice of car, they're a known quantity, etc etc. Sure renting a Tesla or Porche is nice but again, I wonder why someone who can afford such a vehicle wants to rent it out to others and expose themselves to all the risk.
- jdunck 15y ago
  Owners will charge what they are comfortable to cover all these prospective costs. It is a market. The main benefit from a borrower's point of view is that Getaround is both cheaper and more convenient than conventional rental. In fact, an owner could still charge more per hour, given that many rental needs are fractions of days. It may turn out that owner's acceptable fee is high enough that it does not compare well with conventional rental, but from a pure market perspective, this seems unlikely -- rental companies all these costs you point out, plus the cost of idle inventory. An owner has already accepted the bargain of their idle inventory, and only sees upside in rental against the existing costs. Note that Zipcar also bears this idle-inventory cost on their fleet. Getaround has an advantage in harnessing idling capacity at no cost to themselves. It may also turn out that the cost of acquiring users (both owners and borrowers) exceeds revenue per user, and so is not a feasible business. I think this is a real risk, considering the markup of 40%. I rented from Getaround in their earlier phase; it was an excellent deal, far better than ZipCar. The cars were closer (read, more distributed than zipcars) and cheaper. I think the 40% margin might move them into the range of more directly competing with common rental rates though. We'll see. It's hardly crazy, though.
what-to-do 15y ago
All these issues are ongoing issue when starting a new business. They got a good response, fast adoption already and its just the beginning, and investors are lined up. I believe they'll go ahead and now tackle those other issues.

35 points by ssclafani 15y ago

Anyone know how it would effect my own insurance knowing that random people will be driving my car on top of the extra mileage? Also what about extra maintenance involved with renting out my car, are there any incentives from Getaround concerning this ? Another concern would be that, yes in general people that rent cars may not be as responsible with their rental as their own car.

joeguilmette 15y ago
Getaround comes with insurance, so while being rented your own insurance is unaffected! As far as maintenance costs, you set your car's own price per hour, so you can decide how much your extra maintenance costs will be.
- TheSkeptic 15y ago
  Insurance is a red herring IMHO. * Have you ever dealt with a major insurance claim? Even if you were renting out your car for $100/hour, that won't compensate for the headache you will be in for when your renter rear ends a brand new Mercedes-Benz and sends the passengers to the hospital. * Think beyond insurance. What are you going to do when you receive a parking ticket or red light camera violation in the mail that a renter was responsible for? In the case of the parking ticket, you're on the hook no matter what. * Even worse, if your renter is involved in an accident that's reported to Carfax, the resale/trade-in value of your car could plummet. * There are no incentives great enough to compensate for all of the possible extra maintenance and repairs you may have to deal with. Depending on the make and model of your car, even a small ding or scratch could cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to repair.
  - bumbledraven 15y ago
    Your second point is addressed in the getaround FAQ. In short, "Getaround will pay the ticket and take up the dispute with the renter." http://support.getaround.com/kb/policies/what-happens-if-a-renter-receives-a-parking-ticket-or-other-violation http://support.getaround.com/kb/policies/what-happens-if-a-r...
  - kjksf 15y ago
    Those are all valid issues. Consider, however, that every time you rent your room on AirBnB you open up yourself to as many problems (what if they steal from you; what if they damage your room; what if they cause a fire) and yet that hasn't stopped AirBnB from being a smashing success. There's little point in opinionating on their chances of success. So far the signup rates seem to be fantastic and whether they're successful or not will become evident with time. We just have to wait a little.

compnerd 15y ago

How would they prevent a group of car thieves from using prepaid Master or Visa cards with fake names? Couldn't a thief just book a rental car for an hour, find the location, unlock the car with the iphone app, then take off with the car because the key will be inside? Let me know if I am missing something?

TheSkeptic 15y ago
You don't even need to steal the car. You could simply take the the most valuable parts. Some parts can be taken without the owner knowing. Example: air bags. If you rented your car out, you would never know that your air bag was missing until you actually needed it.
- jaxn 15y ago
  Wouldn't that hold true for regular rental cars too? I have never heard of this being a problem with rentals. Maybe TheSkeptic (brand new account) is a competitor?
  - jacobian 15y ago
    Maybe TheSkeptic (brand new account) is a competitor? Ugh, that's a shitty attitude. I think one of the good things about HN is that people here usually give each other the benefit of the doubt and assume good intentions. Lobbing accusations of bias around are a good way to kill that friendly tone. Unless you've got actual proof of bias perhaps you could keep your accusations to yourself next time?
    - jaxn 15y ago
      I think it is a fair question. Brand new account, only posting in this one thread, with pretty flimsy criticisms, and a screen name specifically indicating a negative bias. I did look into it before posting. I think it is also pretty shitty to use throwaway accounts without disclosure and a reason.
jacobian 15y ago

rvanniekerk 15y ago

What about the issue of car thieves in general? From the sound of it, you are required to keep your keys inside the vehicle. The founders basically said "the keys will be in the ignition". Is there no locking component of any sort included in the getaround kit? Doesn't this essentially make the application a directory of easy-to-steal cars for potential thieves?

dotBen 15y ago

This is one of those ideas which wins hearts at a conference like TC but I don't get in terms of practicality. Aside from the issues already stated, let's consider: Keeping the key in the car (if you want to use their preferred auto-key-box-thingy) - I can't believe that wouldn't adversely effect or void my insurance. Certainly the part where I get a discount for an immobilizer is going to be negated (because the immobilizer is in the key, now in the car). And parking a car in SoMa with the ignition in it seems totally dumb - insured or otherwise. It may come with insurance but that still doesn't cover someone driving the shit out of the breaks, clutch, drive train etc. How do you account for fuel - you can't say bring it back with a full tank because you may not keep a full tank in there. How do you account for the extra miles the car is run for with your own insurance? How much are car owners really going to make a month after they have taken their cut? If you own a decent car, is $100/month really pushing the needle and making it worth your while? I still wonder about the premis - how many people REALLY want to share their car with others. I won't let me best friend drive my car (or anyone else for that matter). Finally, from the renters side, I'm not clear what benefit this has over ZipCars. I don't pay an annual membership with ZipCar, they're ~$6/hr, fuel is included (which it isn't here), they have distribution and choice of car, they're a known quantity, etc etc. Sure renting a Tesla or Porche is nice but again, I wonder why someone who can afford such a vehicle wants to rent it out to others and expose themselves to all the risk.

jdunck 15y ago
Owners will charge what they are comfortable to cover all these prospective costs. It is a market. The main benefit from a borrower's point of view is that Getaround is both cheaper and more convenient than conventional rental. In fact, an owner could still charge more per hour, given that many rental needs are fractions of days. It may turn out that owner's acceptable fee is high enough that it does not compare well with conventional rental, but from a pure market perspective, this seems unlikely -- rental companies all these costs you point out, plus the cost of idle inventory. An owner has already accepted the bargain of their idle inventory, and only sees upside in rental against the existing costs. Note that Zipcar also bears this idle-inventory cost on their fleet. Getaround has an advantage in harnessing idling capacity at no cost to themselves. It may also turn out that the cost of acquiring users (both owners and borrowers) exceeds revenue per user, and so is not a feasible business. I think this is a real risk, considering the markup of 40%. I rented from Getaround in their earlier phase; it was an excellent deal, far better than ZipCar. The cars were closer (read, more distributed than zipcars) and cheaper. I think the 40% margin might move them into the range of more directly competing with common rental rates though. We'll see. It's hardly crazy, though.

what-to-do 15y ago

All these issues are ongoing issue when starting a new business. They got a good response, fast adoption already and its just the beginning, and investors are lined up. I believe they'll go ahead and now tackle those other issues.