Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
1–10 of 108 posts
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#2Archive: https://archive.ph/JVFBR
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#3This reads like a hit-piece against ZipCar. The author doesn't give any advice, and merely retells a few anecdotes about people being stranded by parking a ZipCar in a place with poor cell service.
This isn't a problem I'd thought of before, but with the title "How Not to Go Off the Grid", I some advice. (The author doesn't even seem to offer the somewhat-obvious conclusion of "don't park a ZipCar somewhere without any cell service".)
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#4Or: don't take your rental car that relies on cell service out of cell range.
Was anyone else expecting a story about actually going off the grid, you know, permanently?
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#5Going off grid and all the related complexities is quite an interesting thing. Unlike this article.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#6This reads like a hit-piece against ZipCar. The author doesn't give any advice, and merely retells a few anecdotes about people being stranded by parking a ZipCar in a place with poor cell service. This isn't a problem I'd thought of before, but with the title "How Not to Go Off the Grid", I some advice. (The author doesn't even seem to offer the somewhat-obvious conclusion of "don't park a ZipCar somewhere without a…
It doesn't read like a hit piece to me. I doubt most people would think to check their cell phone signal before parking a car.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#7That "lodge" the 3 girls had to stay in was the Salish Lodge & Spa [0], which is pretty damn expensive. I recognized it from a stay there once, it's a beautiful area, I think it was $300-$400 for the cheap rooms.
Hopefully, these companies can figure out a way to prevent this, or to warn the users when they might lose access to the car, or else someday this will be a national news article when a whole family dies in a desert somewhere.
[0]: "Salish Lodge & Spa, Railroad Avenue, Snoqualmie, WA 98024"
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#8I laugh, but then again I recently lost my job a few weeks ago. Thought I would fly home to check-in with my mother and take a sabbatical holiday from the 15 years. I got out of the taxi, hadn't realised that my phone had fallen out of my pocket; ran for the taxi but was too late.
The first feeling was anxiety. After accepting that, it was jealously. Walking past all the strangers in the airport on their phone while I wait for my flight with no music proceeded to anger. I wanted to lash out at someone for my own mistake; delayed flight or something would of given me a perfect excuse. However everything went smoothly surprisingly as the flights home are normally delayed. And then after three hours of flight finally acceptance that for the next four weeks I won't have a phone.
In these four weeks, I've gotten a interview (tomorrow), surprised my mother as I've never been a museum fan and become really eager to wanting to visit more. Found and finally resolved things about myself and have been reading more books than I have ever of thought. Tonights book was on surrealism.
It does have it caveats which really it doesn't. I have gotten in contact with the taxi driver, they being scottish had their line of "enjoy your holiday without the pish of technology".
I wanted to be offgrid and I have been. Maybe this is the wine speaking, but back to my book on surrealism which I never ever thought I would be reading. But to do something simple living life for a bit without technology really does wonders, more good than bad. Sounds scary, but eh, I don't want it back. Would recommend.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#9Or: don't take your rental car that relies on cell service out of cell range. Was anyone else expecting a story about actually going off the grid, you know, permanently?
This hasn’t happened to me, but I would have thought it was your phone over Bluetooth that unlocked the car after you book it.
I don’t 100% know how zipcar operates in each market but I’m guessing these long-distance bookings are pre-booked and you can’t just leave the car in the middle of nowhere.
Your phone and the car would only need to phone home at the start of a reservation.
I guess the car itself doesn’t have cellular at all and relies on the user’s phone? Could easily run into issues where the user has service but the car does not.
Could also see this playing out in underground garages.
It’s unclear why the car needs to phone-home for each unlock/start (but no restrictions on operation) within a reservation within its geo-fence. Common sense would be if the car is where you last dropped it off, it should allow you back in within the time of your reservation.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#10Or: don't take your rental car that relies on cell service out of cell range. Was anyone else expecting a story about actually going off the grid, you know, permanently?
Kind of, but it is the WSJ.
Tangent, but it is interesting to me, how many people now seem to be unwilling to go out of cell range. It reminds me of people decades ago who would go camping, but only with a car. If you had to leave powered-travel range, they were out.
This is less the case for me now, but there was a time when leaving my cell at home was a huge luxury. And I still enjoy days when I can go do things without it - pretty much the only time anymore when my time is truly my own.