Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

bmwcarsharing.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 62 posts

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#21

Post by adriaanm »

yarou wrote: post #2

I really miss DriveNow in SF and the South Bay. It was really convenient if I missed my shuttle in the mornings, or if I had to come back to the city on the weekends. One more reason to ditch SF and move to Seattle I suppose.

SF killed it by not giving them parking permits: http://www.bmwblog.com/2015/10/05/drivenow-to-suspend-operat...

> The company says the decision was influenced by the lack of parking permit regulations necessary for one-way car sharing. “Until the current regulations are amended, we must suspend service in the San Francisco Bay Area,” DriveNow reads in a statement. “We fully expect to return once the city reforms its parking policies to allow for one-way car sharing. We will continue to work with the city of San Francisco toward achieving that goal.”

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#22

Post by robbiet480 »

yarou wrote: post #2

I really miss DriveNow in SF and the South Bay. It was really convenient if I missed my shuttle in the mornings, or if I had to come back to the city on the weekends. One more reason to ditch SF and move to Seattle I suppose.

IMHO As one of the top DriveNow customers i'm pretty upset that they shot themselves in the foot here in SF by attempting to get 100's of on street parking permits for ELECTRIC cars which need to be constantly charged. I really don't understand who thought that would be a great idea for a parking constrained city like San Francisco.

I do miss DriveNow, at least weekly. Having an ActiveE or later, an i3 to run errands or take friends around town was really really great, and the pricing was insane ($60 for 24 hours, all inclusive! It started at $30 when they first launched. I was renting cars for a month at a time because it was cheaper than owning/leasing when you consider that parking at my office building was $700/month).

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#23

Post by rdl »

Yet another reason to hate the San Francisco City Government -- they killed DriveNow SF by refusing to issue a (fairly common in most cities) bulk parking permit to BMW DriveNow (basically, all the cars would be bundled into one account and would pay parking tolls collectively -- either based on estimated usage or observed usage.)

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#24

Post by rdl »

dmoy wrote: post #5
yarou wrote: post #2

I really miss DriveNow in SF and the South Bay. It was really convenient if I missed my shuttle in the mornings, or if I had to come back to the city on the weekends. One more reason to ditch SF and move to Seattle I suppose.

No don't move to Seattle it rains a lot and there's no sun for 9 months. Also, volcanoes.

Especially don't move to Seattle to start technology startups to take advantage of all the great Amazon and Microsoft people who would be great hires 5 to 5000 at new startups (as well as a lot of other big companies), great university, etc.

(i.e. don't be like SpaceX, Google, Facebook, ... who have all opened offices up there)

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#25

Post by rifung »

mikestew wrote: post #8
dmoy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No don't move to Seattle it rains a lot and there's no sun for 9 months. Also, volcanoes.

You'll get used to the rain. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are rare. If you want to keep people away, tell 'am about the astonishingly shitty drivers, because after sixteen years they continue to annoy me on a daily basis.

What's wrong with the drivers? I find they drive slowly sometimes but it's not really a big deal. I find driving in SF to actually be scary on the other hand with people forcefully merging into your lanes.

I've been here for almost two years but I'm still not used to the lack of sunshine for most of the year.

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#26

Post by jonknee »

robbiet480 wrote: post #22
yarou wrote: post #2

I really miss DriveNow in SF and the South Bay. It was really convenient if I missed my shuttle in the mornings, or if I had to come back to the city on the weekends. One more reason to ditch SF and move to Seattle I suppose.

IMHO As one of the top DriveNow customers i'm pretty upset that they shot themselves in the foot here in SF by attempting to get 100's of on street parking permits for ELECTRIC cars which need to be constantly charged. I really don't understand who thought that would be a great idea for a parking constrained city like San Francisco. I do miss DriveNow, at least weekly. Having an ActiveE or later, an i3 to run errands…

> IMHO As one of the top DriveNow customers i'm pretty upset that they shot themselves in the foot here in SF by attempting to get 100's of on street parking permits for ELECTRIC cars which need to be constantly charged. I really don't understand who thought that would be a great idea for a parking constrained city like San Francisco.

Since they are paying for the parking I don't really see what the issue is. If the cars are out somewhere being charged they won't be in a parking spot. Using parking spots for shared cars is more efficient and should actually increase the turnover of spots while still providing consistent revenue to the city (without having to worry about enforcement or actually collecting the revenue).

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#27

Post by jonknee »

wlesieutre wrote: post #7
dmoy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No don't move to Seattle it rains a lot and there's no sun for 9 months. Also, volcanoes.

If you're trying to keep people from moving to Seattle, at least mention the earthquakes and tsunamis. > FEMA projects that nearly thirteen thousand people will die in the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami. Another twenty-seven thousand will be injured, and the agency expects that it will need to provide shelter for a million displaced people, and food and water for another two and a half million. > we now know that th…

Seattle isn't at a significant risk of a tsunami thanks to the large mountain range between it and the Pacific, but it is an issue for those on the peninsula and even more so for coastal Oregon (higher population). A big quake will happen, but that shouldn't deter someone from SF.

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#28

Post by rconti »

guptaneil wrote: post #14

Why provide premium cars and then cover them in decidedly non-premium ReachNow stickers? I'm surprised this service is actually _by_ BMW. I understand wanting to use your cars for marketing, but at least do what zipcar did: don't place any stickers on the driver side so the driver feels like they're getting into a premium car.

shrug seems fine to me. Doesn't change the enjoyment of the car. Yeah, it's got a sticker on it, but likely an urban dweller without a car who only rents one for occasional trips would be relatively proud of their lifestyle, not embarassed by a sticker on the car.

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#29

Post by jonknee »

mikestew wrote: post #8
dmoy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No don't move to Seattle it rains a lot and there's no sun for 9 months. Also, volcanoes.

You'll get used to the rain. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are rare. If you want to keep people away, tell 'am about the astonishingly shitty drivers, because after sixteen years they continue to annoy me on a daily basis.

A slow going Subaru in the left lane?

Re: ReachNow – BMW car sharing service in Seattle

#30

Post by joshcanhelp »

Looking forward to trying it but the app crashed hard, twice (got the iOS "charge your phone" screen when I tried to turn it off despite being at half battery), then just told me I needed to contact support. Will try again though, really want to try out the i3.

Any plans to add premium models like the M series?

Post reply on HN