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There are lots of car rental apps in the UK, but none seem to execute well. If anyone knows differently, please let me know. What I'd really like: 1. You open

There are lots of car rental apps in the UK, but none seem to execute well. If anyone knows differently, please let me know. What I'd really like: 1. You open the app and press a button. 2. A car arrives at your location within a few minutes. 3. The driver hands you a key and leaves. 4. When you're finished with the car, you open the app and press a button. 5. Within a few minutes, a driver arrives and you hand them the key. This could have plenty of optimisations. For example: I probably want to go away from home and then back home. It might make most sense for me to have a pre-arranged schedule for receiving / returning the key. Perhaps I could have a regular booking on the app. In the future, maybe it's 'keyless' and it uses self-driving to get to me. Maybe it drives itself while I'm in it, and just goes and parks itself somewhere out of the way / free when I'm not actively using it. When I get 'it' back, maybe it's a different car - that's fine.

anandoza 5y ago
> The driver hands you a key and leaves How?
- tokamak-teapot 5y ago
  Shadowed by another driver, who picks the first up, or brings an electric scooter with them (these are as common as Ubers around here now), or ... teleports?
- jameshart 5y ago
  Well, see, he opens an app, presses a button, and in three to five minutes, another driver shows up in a car, hands him a key and leaves.
  - listenallyall 5y ago
    recursive car renting
snypher 5y ago
How does the driver arrive in step 5? I've seen services that will drive you home after a night out where the driver arrives on a mini scooter that will fit in your trunk, but this only works in urban areas and with appropriate cars.
- tokamak-teapot 5y ago
  Best option around here is probably electric scooter.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  Lots of rental car companies offer a drop-off service like this already. They use two drivers.
  - bee_rider 5y ago
    Yeah, that part sounds doable -- although, at least twice as expensive as it'd require two cars in the place of one, plus whatever the cost of having two drivers is. I guess a service where the users pickup/drop off the cars up would only require employee intervention to correct flow differences from one pickup point to another? Although maybe the cars need to be cleaned anyway.
- diebeforei485 5y ago
  Presumably, they'd just use an Uber in places like Los Angeles. In NYC, they might use a combination of Uber, Citibike, and the subway depending on where they're going to/from. Self driving cars would make this much better, of course.
adventured 5y ago
> 1. You open the app and press a button. 2. A car arrives at your location within a few minutes. > 4. When you're finished with the car, you open the app and press a button. 5. Within a few minutes, a driver arrives and you hand them the key. There is a really good reason that doesn't exist and isn't going to exist on a reliable basis anytime soon.
bee_rider 5y ago
I know the UK is tiny, but a few minutes sounds incredibly optimistic.
- tokamak-teapot 5y ago
  We have Uber, where you can already have a car to your door within a few minutes, at least for a decent number of us. There's a lot of geographical area where it's not true (i.e. most of the UK) but the vast majority of trips for most people are within a few km radius. The difference is that the driver gets out and you get in. It's a big difference in terms of implementation, but it's not so wildly new an idea. See other comments under my original comment, talking about rental companies doing it already. Yes they do it already, but not with a click on an app, within a few minutes, for a reasonable price. If (car delivery/pickup) drivers could teleport between cars, would there be much else in the way of this happening for real?
freddie_mercury 5y ago
Not sure why you need it in an app but... ...every car rental company already offers this, though not necessarily at every single location. That you didn't know that and don't use it suggests it isn't really as useful as you think it would be. Hertz charges you £25 for the delivery and £25 for the pick up. Very few people are going to find that extra cost worth it.
- tokamak-teapot 5y ago
  > That you didn't know that and don't use it suggests it isn't really as useful as you think it would be. > Not sure why you need it in an app I need it in an app so it's convenient. It also needs to arrive quickly (so no, no car rental company offers that) and be cheap - which, as you pointed out, it isn't. There are some companies attempting to offer something closer to this if you have a look in app stores, but they're still a long way from the convenience, price and speed of Uber. Can it be done? It depends on the cost of moving drivers around, I'd say.
llampx 5y ago
There's a Berlin-based startup which is offering a service like this, where a driver is piloting the car remotely with the help of a fast connection and multiple cameras. So you order a car, someone drives it remotely to you, you drive it to your destination, and then the remote driver takes it away. I think they're still testing it with the help of actual drivers as backup.

anandoza 5y ago

> The driver hands you a key and leaves How?

tokamak-teapot 5y ago
Shadowed by another driver, who picks the first up, or brings an electric scooter with them (these are as common as Ubers around here now), or ... teleports?
jameshart 5y ago
Well, see, he opens an app, presses a button, and in three to five minutes, another driver shows up in a car, hands him a key and leaves.
- listenallyall 5y ago
  recursive car renting

snypher 5y ago

How does the driver arrive in step 5? I've seen services that will drive you home after a night out where the driver arrives on a mini scooter that will fit in your trunk, but this only works in urban areas and with appropriate cars.

tokamak-teapot 5y ago
Best option around here is probably electric scooter.
kingcharles 5y ago
Lots of rental car companies offer a drop-off service like this already. They use two drivers.
- bee_rider 5y ago
  Yeah, that part sounds doable -- although, at least twice as expensive as it'd require two cars in the place of one, plus whatever the cost of having two drivers is. I guess a service where the users pickup/drop off the cars up would only require employee intervention to correct flow differences from one pickup point to another? Although maybe the cars need to be cleaned anyway.
diebeforei485 5y ago
Presumably, they'd just use an Uber in places like Los Angeles. In NYC, they might use a combination of Uber, Citibike, and the subway depending on where they're going to/from. Self driving cars would make this much better, of course.

adventured 5y ago

> 1. You open the app and press a button. 2. A car arrives at your location within a few minutes. > 4. When you're finished with the car, you open the app and press a button. 5. Within a few minutes, a driver arrives and you hand them the key. There is a really good reason that doesn't exist and isn't going to exist on a reliable basis anytime soon.

bee_rider 5y ago

I know the UK is tiny, but a few minutes sounds incredibly optimistic.

tokamak-teapot 5y ago
We have Uber, where you can already have a car to your door within a few minutes, at least for a decent number of us. There's a lot of geographical area where it's not true (i.e. most of the UK) but the vast majority of trips for most people are within a few km radius. The difference is that the driver gets out and you get in. It's a big difference in terms of implementation, but it's not so wildly new an idea. See other comments under my original comment, talking about rental companies doing it already. Yes they do it already, but not with a click on an app, within a few minutes, for a reasonable price. If (car delivery/pickup) drivers could teleport between cars, would there be much else in the way of this happening for real?

freddie_mercury 5y ago

Not sure why you need it in an app but... ...every car rental company already offers this, though not necessarily at every single location. That you didn't know that and don't use it suggests it isn't really as useful as you think it would be. Hertz charges you £25 for the delivery and £25 for the pick up. Very few people are going to find that extra cost worth it.

tokamak-teapot 5y ago
> That you didn't know that and don't use it suggests it isn't really as useful as you think it would be. > Not sure why you need it in an app I need it in an app so it's convenient. It also needs to arrive quickly (so no, no car rental company offers that) and be cheap - which, as you pointed out, it isn't. There are some companies attempting to offer something closer to this if you have a look in app stores, but they're still a long way from the convenience, price and speed of Uber. Can it be done? It depends on the cost of moving drivers around, I'd say.

llampx 5y ago

There's a Berlin-based startup which is offering a service like this, where a driver is piloting the car remotely with the help of a fast connection and multiple cameras. So you order a car, someone drives it remotely to you, you drive it to your destination, and then the remote driver takes it away. I think they're still testing it with the help of actual drivers as backup.