BMW
just launched a fresh car-sharing service called ReachNow that may enable
Seattle residents to gain access to 400 cars they can pick up and fall off
pretty much wherever they will like, as long as that’s not around the outskirts
of town. At some point, the idea is to be able to expand into cities across the
country.
BMW’s
isn’t a revolutionary concept now. Daimler has a related service called Car2Go
that’s for sale in New York, Austin, Minneapolis, Vancouver and also Portland,
Oregon. Audi also launched any car-sharing service in San francisco bay area
and Miami earlier called Audi at Residence (though it’s currently restricted to
residents of one high end condominium complex in each and every city).
BMW
itself is operating car-sharing services inside 10 European cities, where
Daimler can be making a big press. Not only are these kinds of services better
for towns, but it looks like they could produce more revenue for your car
companies than marketing cars, too.
What’s
perhaps most interesting concerning this new ReachNow initiative will be how
BMW is getting it ready to go: through a partnership together with RideCell, a
San Francisco-based business whose software serves as some sort of high-tech
traffic controller.
The
business - formed in Altlanta ga by Georgia Tech grads who moved to San
francisco bay area for Y Combinator inside 2011 - describes itself because the
operating system of quite a few car-sharing, ride-sharing, fixed-route and also
dynamic transit services.
It
wasn’t always like that. Originally called InstantCab, next Summon, the company
was originally conceived being a ride-share service à l . a . Uber. But as time
passed plus it grew vastly out-funded, the business began looking to autonomous
fleets. A lot more specifically, the team made a decision to tackle the thorny
problem of how companies can manage them, from knowing where each car is found,
to which ride could have a low battery, to the vehicles that must be washed or
are ruined.
None
of RideCell’s consumers are overseeing autonomous fleets as of this time. These
include UC Berkeley, USC, 3M as well as the Santa Clara Valley Travel
Authority, which is using RideCell to make certain its shuttles aren’t working
half empty.
But
RideCell will probably be ready when they are usually, says CEO and co-founder
Aarjav Trivedi.
“On-demand
will be here and autonomous is on its way, ” he says. “So we’re working
together with the first and helping our clients plan the second. ”
Without
a doubt, for now, RideCell’s new partnership together with BMW will largely
allow BMW to work its fleet of car-share autos - including 3 Collection sedans,
Mini Coopers and its particular electric i3 models - better. For example, if a
driver hops in the car with a lower battery, RideCell might prompt BMW to offer
the driver a discount if she or he is willing to work with a charging station
as their particular final destination. (As that stands, the drives will surely
cost 41 cents a minute to get a promotional period, then go on to 49 cents.)
BMW
likes RideCell’s tech a great deal, in fact, it’s getting its money where the
mouth is. When RideCell this kind of week closed on $11. 7 thousand in Series A
money, it was BMW my partner and i Ventures, which has dedicated to the company
previously, in which led the round. Some other participants included earlier
backer Khosla Projects; Gokul Rajaram, who’s something engineering lead at
Rectangular; and Flutter co-founder (and today Nest product manager) Mehul
Nariyawala.
Entirely,
RideCell has raised $17 thousand.
By the
way, those customers interested in registering for ReachNow need only check
their driver’s license, then verify their identity through a picture of their
face from the ReachNow app. BMW claims the approval process will take two
minutes or a smaller amount.
Update:
A couple of viewers have noted that BMW has tried car-sharing inside the U. S.
previously, beneath the brand DriveNow. The constrained initiative, launched in
San francisco bay area in 2012 (the simply city where it operated), was
shuttered after efforts to do business with the city on any parking solution
failed.
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