
Tap Your Phone, and a Designated Driver Takes You and Your Car Home - gwallens
http://www.wsj.com/articles/tap-your-phone-and-a-designated-driver-takes-you-and-your-car-home-1435174499
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michael_michael
A similar service is commonly used in Japan. You drive to a bar to meet work
colleagues, get tanked, and call the service. A car with two people shows up.
One of them drives you home, the other drives your car home. The legal,
financial, and social penalties of getting a DUI in Japan are much more
calamitous than in the US (or were when I lived there).

I always thought that it would be a good idea to bring to the US if only you
could figure out a way to work with insurers. Glad someone worked it out.

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discardorama
This is an addon on top of Luxe. So you're paying them $15 (for the parking)
_and_ an additional $25 (for the drive home).

In places like SF, you'd be better of Ubering back and forth. Even a cab would
probably be cheaper.

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benburton
The only real use case for this is if you drive somewhere, get drunk
unintentionally, and need to get home with your vehicle.

Planning ahead and using Uber is obviously the more economical solution.

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zamalek
What do insurance companies make of this?

A long while back a company called "Good Fellas" landed in locally: phone them
and they'll send a driver out to drive your car and your drunken self home. It
took absurd amounts of time for insurers to catch on and realize that this
mitigates risk - I phoned my insurer and they responded with the obviously
brain-dead "that person isn't a registered driver and therefore your car won't
be insured." _Some_ now allow valets for drunk people.

Is this a problem if you use something like Luxe? Have they figured it out?

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rconti
My insurance allows any authorized driver to drive my car and be covered. I
called them up before my girlfriend's cousin's boyfriend visited from England
and asked if he was covered (despite not being a citizen or resident of the
US, not possessing a US driver's license, related to me (or her!) in any way,
etc, etc.

They said "no problem".

(and yes, I realize I should probably not rely on phone support staff for
legal advice)

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scrumper
I thought this broadly applied to auto insurance. It does in NY state at
least. Anyone can drive my car with my permission; the co. just wants to know
who they are if they're 'regular' users (a nanny, long-term guest etc.)

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rahimnathwani
This appears to be the case in CA, too. I visit once or twice a year, and I
was surprised that there was no need for me to be added (at a cost) to my
father-in-law's insurance policy.

In the UK, insurance costs are heavily dependent on the history of the
drivers. 'Any driver' policies were common until ~20 years ago, but now all
the competitively-priced policies cover only named drivers.

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fapjacks
One of my core childhood friends created exactly this service in our hometown
with a foldable motorscooter. He had a lot of customers (and an amazing array
of regulars that kept him busy at night). I used to drive for him sometimes.
The thing about his service was that he made a pretty good amount of money
charging people ten dollars. Caveats: This was around the turn of the
millennium, our hometown is rather small(ish) university town, and he didn't
have an app, just a cellphone.

Now, there are some problems with this business model that I won't give away
for free here (because this version is very expensive for some reason). They
will discover them soon enough, and it may be enough to shut them down.

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t0mas88
This already exists in Amsterdam for years, it's called Scooter Bob here
because the guy arrives on a little foldable scooter and Bob was the name of
the government's anti DUI campaign.

The trip is slightly more expensive than an Uber, but because you drive the
way there yourself and only use it for the return it is still quite cost
effective. Especially when parking in a free spot such as the office parking
garage (which is where I use it most)

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josu
How about the security of Luxe drivers? These people are skating at night
trying to get to the car as fast as possible. Somebody is going to get hurt
eventually.

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jy133
Skating is also illegal in a lot of SF

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fezz
In Korea Town in Los Angeles, you can call a double taxi. One driver comes and
drives you and your car home, while the other car follows to take the 1st
driver home.

