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Getaround: Peer-to-peer car sharing and car rental startup

getaround.com

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Re: Getaround: Peer-to-peer car sharing and car rental startup

#21

Post by sarkozy »

avree wrote: post #10
ry0ohki wrote: post #5

An interesting idea, the pricing (on both buy and sell side) should be much more obvious, I couldn't find anything besides the "as much as $350 for renting your car out for 15 hours". Are the prices based on the quality of car or does everyone get the same amount? (My 25 year old beater CRX vs your new Tesla?) I also wonder how many people would really be willing to rent their own car out. I would expect the people t…

Pricing is set by the owner - as well as the option for hourly, daily, or weekly. When I first joined Getaround, I had the same doubt. I wasn't sure if people would be willing to rent their cars out - full insurance, tracking, or not. What's been interesting is the type of signups we've gotten - there are a bunch of regular cars, of course, but right off the bat we saw a lot of luxury vehicles as well (the Tesla bein…

Sounds like you live in an affluent or at least broadly educated area, if people broadly have such high-minded concerns about the welfare of the community. Your experience may not translate to more economically-mixed neighborhoods.

Re: Getaround: Peer-to-peer car sharing and car rental startup

#22

Post by ShabbyDoo »

It seems that airport-centric rental businesses like Hertz/Avis/etc. avoid adverse selection bias in renters because customers have a need which is independent of undesirable traits. Furthermore, by virtue of being able to afford a plane ticket (or, even better, be important enough to have someone else buy one for them), airport renters have demonstrated some level of responsibility.

Re: Getaround: Peer-to-peer car sharing and car rental startup

#23

Post by sarkozy »

ShabbyDoo wrote: post #19
ernestipark wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are all legitimate issues you bring up, but they're all issues that normal car rental companies face too. How do they handle it?

One speculation on the parts issue... Most rental companies only rent cars which have been produced in the past couple of years. Because those vehicles are almost always under warranty, I wonder if the black market for used parts for them is small and therefore doesn't provide much of an incentive for such theft? Almost all repairs involving mechanical failure (as opposed to an accident) on newer cars are handled by…

You're right. The "marginal difference", as you say, is key. So let's assume theft of parts happens rarely. Don't we still need a process in place to adjudicate when it does happen? Let's say the theft is not of a water pump but a car radio or, let's say, the owner left his radar detector or his daughter's ipod in the car and the renter walked off with it. What's the process for adjudicating that claim? Does getaround need to get involved? What if it's a false claim and the renter is unfairly charged for it? The same applies to scrathes and damages. If the owner claims the car was scratched during the rental, does he need to back up that claim with photographic evidence - before and after pictures? And what's the process for authenticating those pictures as valid? All I'm saying is there's a minefield of potential disputes here, especially because there is not necessarily a hand-off between the owner and the renter when the car is returned.

Re: Getaround: Peer-to-peer car sharing and car rental startup

#24

Post by araneae »

mbubb wrote: post #6

Facebook only logins... why not OpenID?

On the site it says,

"You will be asked to log into Facebook. Getaround is a community built on trust and by connecting with Facebook, you enable safe and open sharing."

Probably the reason is they want to verify your real identity (i.e. legal name) and they have a better chance at that with Facebook. Although they could presumably do that with a credit card.

Re: Getaround: Peer-to-peer car sharing and car rental startup

#25

Post by ojbyrne »

ShabbyDoo wrote: post #14

When considering only commodity vehicles (a Honda Accord or whatever), the motivation of most urban renters is likely a low friction way to go to Costco on a Saturday, etc. without the cost/bother of owning a vehicle. However, the motivation for someone to pay more to rent, say, a BMW for the afternoon is quite different and probably not one which would give the BMW's owner warm fuzzies. It seems that Getaround might…

Zipcar seems to be fairly successful despite leaving the key in the car.

Re: Getaround: Peer-to-peer car sharing and car rental startup

#28

Post by archangel_one »

Eric Sink suggested pretty much this exact idea some years ago, but said he didn't think it would work because of the risk of people treating cars badly. http://www.ericsink.com/Choose_Your_Competition.html

I tend to agree; I'd not be at all keen to loan my car to some random stranger. I'm more attached to it than the average person, but there just seem to be too many things that could go wrong; what if they smoke in it? What if they drive it into something? What if they steal it? Maybe those things aren't likely, but they'd worry me too much. And yes, they're apparently insured, but the inconvenience of having your car off the road for a week or two goes far beyond just the cost of getting it fixed.

But if other people want to rent their cars this way, great. Sounds pretty good from the rentor's point of view. Also, the existing car rental companies could do with a damn good shake-up and if this gives it to them, so much the better. I guess I'm not in their target audience - I'm not anyway since I don't live in the States, but I'm interested to know if enough people are keen on something like this to make it work. My gut feeling has been 'no', but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.

Re: Getaround: Peer-to-peer car sharing and car rental startup

#30

Post by sarkozy »

archangel_one wrote: post #28

Eric Sink suggested pretty much this exact idea some years ago, but said he didn't think it would work because of the risk of people treating cars badly. http://www.ericsink.com/Choose_Your_Competition.html I tend to agree; I'd not be at all keen to loan my car to some random stranger. I'm more attached to it than the average person, but there just seem to be too many things that could go wrong; what if they smoke in…

I'd not be at all keen to loan my car to some random stranger

Neither would I. Nor would I want to type "rental car" into Youtube if I ever decided to participate in this program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyjbmOVcbHI

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