It ’s easy to lean the advantages of car sharing in the metropolis . The gas , insurance and upkeep are all claim attention of , and you do n’t have to vex about paying for monthly parking in the service department under your eco - friendly renovated vintage apartment building . You get a car when you need it , and only when you ask it .
Zipcar , as one example , lets you micro - let a variety of vehicle with your membership , from compact two - doors to SUVs and pick-me-up trucks . Another machine communion service , car2go , gives all its members access to its fleet of smart fortwo cars .
If you have n’t tried car sharing yourself , you might expect the downsides to be the same as sharing a car with your spouse or teen : The accelerator pedal tank always seems to be empty , the shelling is dead — what ’s that ding in the rear cowcatcher ?
As it turns out , those things do n’t come up so often with car share services . Car2go vehicle ensure to remind you to turn off the lights when you park , says drug user Vinnie Kinsella via email . He ’s also never had a vehicle break down on his watch . “ They ’re pretty good about monitoring their vehicle and making sure people report problem when they arise , ” he say .
But he ’s been ground — double — when the company ’s servers were down . He ’s also used the car2go app to settle a fomite nearby , only to find an empty parking space when he get there . “ That ’s incredibly frustrating , ” he says . So it ’s not the car that breaks down — it ’s the overhaul ’s technology .
Mel Wells , a fellowcar sharingveteran who now owns her own car , agrees with Kinsella . “ I never feel trouble with the cars themselves so much as the web , ” she says in an email . exploiter have a card that unlocks the elevator car for them , and sometimes that card ca n’t get a signal to the satellite .
Dacyl Armendariz , external communications manager at car2go , points out in a telephone set interview that like many car communion troupe , car2go is more a brand - new variety of tech - based business organisation than a car business sector . “ We ’re babies , ” she says , “ and we ’re write this story as we go . ”
Armendariz says the troupe make certain to notice when users like Wells and Kinsella have issues , and it works with its technical school team to plow these things as they come up . The trouble Wells had with the card , for example , can now be avoided by using an app on the drug user ’s phone instead . Car2go updates its app based on user feedback , much of which total through itsnew Twitter account .
And if you ’re wondering how a fleet of cars spread across a city can be in better Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe than your own two - cable car fleet , Armendariz has an answer . There ’s a team of hoi polloi out on the streets constantly supervise car2go ’s smart cars , checking the fuel levels , strip out the interiors , and even switch tyre on - the - fly if call for .
