161–170 of 192 posts
Allowing people into the wilderness with a car that by design has these issues is very close to negligent homicide.
What exactly do you propose? A zipcar that doesn't allow allow you to drive outside of the city?
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If the battery is flat on the car then you are still pretty much out of luck even if you can get in. The only advantage to being able to open it is to use it as shelter in a emergency situation
And having shelter from the rain while you wait for someone to arrive can be a great advantage. I'm sure there are many other fantastic reasons to want access to your vehicle when the battery is flat.
If you can't open the car, you probably can't pop the hood latch to get a jump-start, which makes the difference between a tow and a simple drive to a store. And "stuck alone at the trailhead with a dead battery" is nothing new to hikers, but being able to spend the night in the car if you have to makes it a lot more pleasant.
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There's at least two ways of handling serious product failings: "Oh, shit, we have to fix that!" or getting rid of the customer exposing the problem and trying to conceal the issue. One is the action of a healthy company, especially one that is trying to grow, while the other maximizes current profit levels.
Doesn't parking in same place twice, knowing full well the likely cost to the person they're doing business with, seem unethical? Would you want to do business with someone who carelessly took advantage of you?
AFAIK they did not say you shouldn't park underground nor did they explain their various failure modes and how to avoid them.
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Disagreed about the ban. Since when is shitty technology (which any engineer worth their salt should’ve predicted - this is not rocket science) the fault of the customer? Unless they say in bold in their marketing statements “Only drive within cell coverage” the customer isn’t at fault for trying to use it as a normal car (in fact it’s crazy to think that parking in a place with no reception is no longer normal, at l…
Never play the "who's dumber" game with private companies you'll always lose. If it happens twice you should switch on your common sense and stop using the service, or at the very least change your behaviour/don't be surprised if you get banned. > which any engineer worth their salt should’ve predicted - this is not rocket science There are probably tons of other issues you don't know about. Making it work offline wo…
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Based on my experience, this is not true, I could always open the car via the application.
The first time you unlock the car, it always has to be using a physical card. I learnt this the hard way. https://www.quora.com/Can-I-use-a-Zipcar-without-my-Zipcard
> making sure that the cars work when out of reception is a “mission-critical success factor” for the company I guess mission failed then... It is so easy to call something mission-critical. I am always tempted to ignore it when I hear it, because most of the time it is a red herring. Instead I use it as a launching off point for a conversation with clients about priorities for a given solution.
If the car has a big yellow sticker on the dash saying, "if you drive this vehicle to a location without cellular coverage, you may become stranded", would you rent it?
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This isn't internet of shit though...is an iPhone shitty if you can't use cell services when you don't have cell service?
Is an iPhone shitty if you can't use it at all if you don't have cell service? Is a car shitty if it leaves you stranded due to a known issue?
"Locking keys in car" is a well known failure mode of cars, and it is entirely OPs fault.
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Lack of cell coverage is out of their control, but that doesn't excuse them from designing around the problem. It appears they're aware of the problem, but certain known issues prevent access (cellular unit draining car battery seems to be the common one and sounds like something that should be fixable).
Add a keypad like Ford has had on their vehicles for like 20 years. Have the computer keep a short list of one time pass codes (and maybe some sort of super long master code) that can be updated whenever the car is in cell service. So in the event that you get into the car, Zipcar can provide one of the one time use codes to get you in the door.
In my younger years I worked at a startup that had an advisor that was one of the original technical architects at Air Touch Cellular. For those that do not know they were one of the original cell phone companies in California and the west (now AT&T). He did not own a cell phone, a fact which I found strange. I asked him why and his answer was “they screwed it all up..the deployments and coverage, it’s a solved issue…
I'd love to hear more about this. Did he mean that there is a solved and known way to get uniform national cell phone coverage without blackspots? If so, do you know more about what his solution was.
All car sharing platforms* I have used in Amsterdam/The Netherlands/Europe have a key in the glove compartment that you can take out when you park the car. Why doesn't Zipcar do the same? * i.e. Car2Go, ConnectCar, MyWheels, Fetch, SnappCar
Doesn't the key go missing often? I'm reminded of European hotels that want you to leave the room key at the front desk.
On the other hand, the fuel payment card does missing - but at least Zipcar in the UK are efficient at refunding your own payment when provided with a receipt.