Do you hate having to own your car? You know, paying for gas, insurance, a place to park. It's all so exhausting. Wouldn't you just rather pay for a car as you need it? That's the idea behind Daimler's Car2Go program that will soon make its way to Austin, TX.
The idea is to have Smart cars spread throughout the city and when you need to go somewhere you just hop in, swipe your registration card and go. You can also reserve a car ahead of time with your cell phone. Rates are by the minute, hour or day, insurance included.
A pilot program in Ulm, Germany has already shown signs of interest. According to Robert Henrich, project manager at Daimler AG, "In just two weeks more than 500 customers had registered with car2go - a number we had not anticipated. Sometimes I could see from my office window how employees sprinted to the parking lot after work to get a car2go before they were all gone."
Yes, that sounds like a great way to end the workday.
firstwagon says:
10:02 AM, 03/26/09
Sounds like renting a car to me. Don't we already have that?
More cleverly marketed perhaps.
genius163 says:
11:45 AM, 03/26/09
Even more than ZipCar/FlexCar, this program reminds me of an episode of The Outer Limits in which all cars were supplied by the city. You just got into whichever car was closest and drove it to wherever you were going. Once you parked it, it was available for anyone else to use.
estreka says:
04:02 PM, 03/27/09
If this program were to be successful anywhere, it'd be Austin. I'll keep an eye on it.