I must begin this by saying that I love Zipcar.com and have been using them for quite awhile now. One of the only major issues I have with Zipcar.com is there isn’t one of their cars parked close enough to me when I don’t have to travel to get to a car to use. I mean if I have to take a bus or train to pick up the car, kind of defeats the purpose. But you know what would be cool? What if I could borrow my landlord’s car, or my neighbor down the block. What about a close friend of yours who isn’t too far from you. I’d would get a car to use close by, and my friend/neighbor/whoever would get paid for it. This is kind of what Getaround does.
Getaround brings peer to peer sharing to cars. Anyone can sign up and make available their car to use. You set the price per hour, or day and then you let me use your car when your not. Now when someone else uses your car, Getaround’s insurance company takes over, so if anything happens their insurance take care of it, not your. I love this concept. Getaround has already signed up 1,600 cars for their service, though most it them are based in California. This is where Zipcar started as well, so I’m hoping they spread to New York fast!
So once you do sign up, how to you let people use your car, that is another thing. Getaround using a remote keyless kit that can be installed in your car (it is suppose to be easy enough you could do it yourself) and then there is an iPhone app (hope an Android one is in the making!). Once you let someone use your car, when they approach, they use the iPhone app to unlock your car door. From there they use a manual key that you would leave in the car somewhere and start driving.
I think this has great potential as anyone can sign up and start loaning their car. If this picks up, you could have many options of the cars you would like to drive without the cost of ownership. And for the car owners, you could be making money on a car that would just simply be seating parked. Check out more at www.getaround.com, so who wants to loan me their car?
