71–80 of 85 posts
I'm gonna be in Helsinki for a month from next week. Can I buy the €499 monthly deal and get a car for a month?
The only reason I can imagine needing a car would be if I had children.
As a Helsinki resident (and Whim user) it’s important to point out that while the user base of Whim has grown quite a bit, it’s most likely due to the introductory price that won’t last forever. For 49 € you get public transport, public bike (first half an hour free), cheap taxi rides and perhaps slightly cheaper car renting, whereas to get public transport alone without this app is around 55 €. So I wouldn’t call it…
As a another Helsinki resident, I agree. Whim is nice experiment but not necessarily a solution with their current business model. I think that Whim (or another Whim type service) can work if you consider the the price of the parking space. Currently Helsinki has zoning regulations for mandatory parking places that is too high (roughly 0.8 per apartment). The cost of parking place is something like 30,000 - 70,000 eu…
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As a another Helsinki resident, I agree. Whim is nice experiment but not necessarily a solution with their current business model. I think that Whim (or another Whim type service) can work if you consider the the price of the parking space. Currently Helsinki has zoning regulations for mandatory parking places that is too high (roughly 0.8 per apartment). The cost of parking place is something like 30,000 - 70,000 eu…
That is a remarkable cost for a structured parking space! In America the construction cost is like $20-30k (17-25k EUR). I bet you could find projects for more than that but nothing like 70k EUR.
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On the flip side, consider the time you spend looking for parking. Depending on where you live, that's also a big time sink. I'd rather be checking Twitter on the sidewalk than cursing the parking gods looping around, but that's just me.
>> On the flip side, consider the time you spend looking for parking. A short-term problem. By the end of this year I will own a driverless car. It can just drive around in circles until I'm ready. Or go home for a quick recharge before heading back to pick me up.
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Yeah it's abit of a fluff piece, but compared to stuff that comes out in the US scene everyday it's nothing. Can't we just once be positive? The app works, there are no lies in the article. Maybe if people in Finland were a bit more optimistic there would be more successful companies
The article could make it more clear that this is the work of a private startup, and not a public service as the title implies.
They should definitely be more transparent.
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I think the nice thing about this is you can adjust usage/payments - like if you travel a lot, just stop paying for a month or two. Not sure you can do that with regular leased cars? I also like the free <5km taxi and free public transport rides with this
It's not free for less than 5km. If it was I'd sign up tomorrow. It's a 10e flat fee for < 5km.
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Yeah it's abit of a fluff piece, but compared to stuff that comes out in the US scene everyday it's nothing. Can't we just once be positive? The app works, there are no lies in the article. Maybe if people in Finland were a bit more optimistic there would be more successful companies
There is a fine difference between being positive and self-deception. There are no direct lies, but like often in today's media they only focus on one side of the story and leave important information out. For example what was already meantioned here that this whole thing is just initial offer subsidized with VC fund and that it will not last forever. Second, the cheaper taxi's argument was true in a way few weeks ag…
Yes, the price might change. But that also mean the service might change.
The reason whim taxis were only through a certain taxi company was because that was the situation then. The app itself is aiming to be open for any ride-sharing platform, so Uber or Taxify could easily integrate.
I'm sorry but your comment just feels like you're trying your best to be pessimistic. It's healthy at times, but sometimes (especially with new concepts), you should let things grow and evolve before squandering it's opportunities.
The 499 euro price tag for the "all access" seems quite expensive from an American point of view. I can get a decent car with good gas mileage for about half that and outright buying a used car will save me a lot more in less than a year. Most people who would be tempted to go without owning a car in the US don't do much driving anyway, so they don't spend a lot on gas as is. While I think this could work in NYC, Sea…
That's about $580 US. The average monthly payment on a NEW car in the US is around $500 [0][1]. Add in parking (even "free" parking isn't), depreciation, gasoline, insurance, and registration fees and that's pretty darn close to $580. From my perspective, living the DC suburbs, I would love to have an all-access app for multi-mode transport. I own two cars (one for me, one for wife). I walk to work, so my car only ge…
Its the availability that is the killer for these sorts of services, as one of the people interviewed in the article says. I don't see how these services can compare with a private car without totally saturating the neighborhood with lots of idle vehicles sitting around to cover the spikes in demand without suffering infuriating unavailability when you need to get somewhere. Its already annoying seeing all the dock-l…
I don't see how these services can compare with a private car without totally saturating the neighborhood with lots of idle vehicles sitting around Are there not giant parking lots and over-capacity street parking in your city? I live in the US suburbs, own a car, and it sits idle the vast majority of the time. Individual car ownership literally leads to the problem you claim MaaS creates.
1 - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4048546/Garages-gold...
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As a another Helsinki resident, I agree. Whim is nice experiment but not necessarily a solution with their current business model. I think that Whim (or another Whim type service) can work if you consider the the price of the parking space. Currently Helsinki has zoning regulations for mandatory parking places that is too high (roughly 0.8 per apartment). The cost of parking place is something like 30,000 - 70,000 eu…
That is a remarkable cost for a structured parking space! In America the construction cost is like $20-30k (17-25k EUR). I bet you could find projects for more than that but nothing like 70k EUR.
If you build above the ground, the construction cost can be just $20-30k EUR, but after you factor in the cost of the land, the cost is similar.