
Uber is launching Uber Rent, a rental car service with Getaround - prostoalex
https://qz.com/1250062/uber-is-launching-uber-rent-a-rental-car-service-with-getaround/
======
Finnucane
"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.

~~~
bitcurious
As far as I can tell, Zipcar was intentionally sabotaged after it was acquired
by Avis Budget. Over the past few years the prices went up, the cars are
dirty, often damaged, and the customer service got worse.

I may be an exception in that I can walk to several rental agencies from my
apartment, but renting from an agency usually gets me a nicer car for 24 hours
for the same price that I would get a zipcar for 3 hours. If I need a car for
less than three hours usually it's cheaper with uber/lyft.

Edit: although they're still the most convenient for picking up furniture, as
they have vans.

~~~
steffan
I wouldn’t be as quick to blame the downfall of Zipcar’s quality on deliberate
sabotage. I began using them in 2009 and even back then it was cheaper in a
number of instances to rent a car for more than short periods.

Where ZipCar excelled (I haven’t used it for a number of years) was being able
to not own a car and effortlessly get one for an errand or quick trip.

These days I rent far more often, and even being part of elite programs and
being very experienced with the process it is still far more of a hassle than
simply approaching a car you’ve booked online, tapping your RFID card and
driving away.

I think ZipCar theoretically still has utility for that type of use-case.

A big drawback also was the inability to select a one-way trip. Sometimes you
want to _get_ somewhere and stay for a while, and it’s simply not cost-
effective (or efficient) to tie up a car for 3 or 8 hours vs. just driving
there.

I believe this is a use case that Car2Go addresses, although I haven’t yet
used that.

~~~
mynameisvlad
> These days I rent far more often, and even being part of elite programs and
> being very experienced with the process it is still far more of a hassle
> than simply approaching a car you’ve booked online, tapping your RFID card
> and driving away.

Really? The last time I rented a car in MIA, I showed up, was Enterprise
Executive so I went and could choose any of a few dozen cars that had the keys
already in the ignition. After that, I drove up to the exit at which point the
person pulled up my reservation, scanned the car, and gave me the paperwork. I
was out in less than 5 minutes from when I chose the car.

Return was just as easy, just pulled into the lot, someone scanned the car and
sent me on my way.

Granted, it's not as easy as RFID and go, and I don't have that much
experience with rentals because I don't use them often, but I wouldn't call it
"far more" of a hassle, at least in my limited experience.

~~~
astura
Jesus, limited experience indeed!

That's how bigger _airport_ car rentals work, you've obviously never rented a
car outside an airport location. Non airport car rental locations usually take
a lot longer to go through the whole process, no streamlined/staffless way to
rent, and have limited hours and a much smaller staff. I think the one by my
house is even closed on Sundays. If you have some jackoff in front of you who
is fighting with the staff about being turned away for not having a credit
card you end up having to wait for the staff to deal with that before they can
process your rental[1]. I've also had to wait for the car to be cleaned in the
past when they got unexpectedly busy.

On top of that airports are usually not located near where people live. The
vast majority of people renting a Zipcar for a day trip are not going to want
to go to an airport to pick up their car.

Airport rentals can get significantly backed up during busy times. I've gotten
totally gridlocked in the rental car parking lot before.

[1] actually happened to me

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nlh
It’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.)

~~~
DenisM
Also, 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.

~~~
designcode
I think the best thing about Uber Sofa is the ability to pay surge prices to
get the best spot.

~~~
matte_black
You 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.

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
There 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.

~~~
beedogs
They probably shut down the self-driving thing because they literally stole
all of their code from Google.

~~~
michaelvoz
You have no idea. This isn't Reddit. Please stop with the low effort
speculative muck.

------
alphabettsy
This could potentially be crushing for Turo which seems to struggle to get
noticed, maybe Zipcar as well.

~~~
foolfoolz
zip 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

~~~
markkanof
This is not correct. Maybe this does not apply to every single city that
Zipcar operates in, but they allow 4 or 5 day rentals (can't recall which) in
both Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon. I have done this many times going
back as far as 5 or so years.

I think you are also really down playing the convenience vs. traditional car
rentals. Many car rental companies have moved to the model where they offer
you a certain class of vehicle, and when you get there (which may mean
traveling for 30-60 minutes to a place like the airport) to pick it up you are
choosing from a random smattering of vehicles, which may be close to what you
are expecting or not. I certainly don't appreciate when I get an "upgrade" to
a giant SUV because they were out of the compact sedan that I really wanted.
With Zipcar, if you live in a city, you can find a car in your neighborhood
and know exactly what car you are getting, down to the color. You can also
choose vehicles with other upgrades like roof rack or state parks pass. Zipcar
also makes it easy to have multiple drivers use the car. Let's say I want to
let my wife or brother drive during part of our trip. No problem, they are
both Zipcar members as well, so they can just drive the car. They don't have
to be there when I pick up the car to show their license and get added as
drivers on that specific rental.

For me personally there is also a huge benefit to Zipcar offering cargo vans
as a rental option. I'm a hobbyist woodworking and having quick access to a
van to pickup lumber is great! None of the other Zipcar like services that are
available to me offer this. I could of course get this from a traditional
rental car company, but with the problems from the previous paragraph.

I think my point is really that Zipcar hits a sweet spot that no competitors
seem to be addressing directly.

~~~
foolfoolz
i tried to use zip car for a multi day rental in vancouver. i talked to people
at zip car and they said that is not allowed this was 2015

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vthallam
This 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
At 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.

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wehadfun
So you can rent a car on Uber and then use that car to Uber people around?

~~~
exhaze
Not 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/)

------
SubiculumCode
It 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
App install, notifications and credit cards info are a huge part of their
value along with their brand.

------
noahmbarr
Hard to believe Uber did this without some sort of equity ownership in
Getaround...

~~~
lavezzi
I 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
I'm a pretty frequent car renter (Turo) and haven't heard of Getaround at all.

~~~
throwaway413
Same. I’m a weekly renter, I’ve googled around for competing services, and
have literally never heard of Getaround.

~~~
rco8786
Just as a counterpoint - I’ve never heard of Turo but have used Getaround
probably 30 times.

~~~
throwaway413
Touché.

I just tried Getaround but hasn’t launched in my area yet.

------
mvid
I 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
> 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
Renting 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
You could just delist your car if it's an issue

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rootsudo
Good, 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
Hahaha you haven't used Getaround, have you

------
alephnan
Any 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
Avis 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
That’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
It’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
One 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.

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kevin_b_er
So Uber is a middleman car rental agency that outsources all risk to the real
car owners, while taking a nice profit?

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somberi
As 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
Getaround also includes insurance

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45h34jh53k4j
You 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.

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bitrazor123
Will 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
Uber already has rental programs for its drivers (see upthread). But how would
this allow a driver to avoid commissions to uber?

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walrus01
I think this is their answer to Turo?

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username223
I 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
[https://www.amtrak.com/charter-your-private-
train](https://www.amtrak.com/charter-your-private-train)

~~~
rrix2
Amtrak just announced they were shuttering that program at the end of March:
[http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/amtrak-will-no-longer-
op...](http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/amtrak-will-no-longer-operate-
charter-services-special-
trains/article_d41dc911-d3a0-5890-a50b-ef18af95a98f.html)

~~~
Finnucane
Aw, poo.

------
velobro
Sigh.

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.

