GM Launches “Maven” Car Sharing Service
Car sharing and personal mobility are key terms used by all the major automakers these days. In the future, ownership of vehicles is expected to decrease as cars become autonomous. Automakers that are quick to adapt to this trend will be the ones who survive, so General Motors is jumping in with a new car sharing and mobility solution called Maven.
While it’s a limited rollout now, consisting mostly of people who live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Maven allows people to get a GM vehicle when they need a car, and handle it all through their cell phone.
A mobile app will help a person locate a car nearby, and the phone will also act as the key to operate the vehicle. The app will also allow the person to remote start the car, heating it or cooling it in advance. The cars also have GM’s infotainment offerings, which support SiriusXM, Android Auto, Apple Car Play, and OnStar 4GLTE.
To make things simple, the price to borrow the car will be made clear in the app, and the price includes fuel and insurance.
While this is all well and good now, GM is in a unique position to really make this grow. First, they recently invested $500 million into ride-sharing service Lyft. Second, they have several new cars coming out that are not only affordable, but extremely fuel efficient.
The Chevrolet Bolt, the fully-EV passenger car, could easily be a cornerstone of GM’s future mobility plans. Operating entirely on electric, these vehicles will be allowed into cities where fuel-burning vehicles aren’t, or have to pay a higher tax to do so. In places like London, that’d be a boon.
Electricity is also easily located, so an infrastructure doesn’t have to be built out. At Maven areas, EV chargers can easily be installed.
Also, if Lyft drivers end up driving Bolts (or even the range-extended Volt), that will lower the driver’s overall fuel costs, enticing more people to work for them since they can offer more profit per fare.
Long-term, Maven and the investment in Lyft provides Chevrolet and General Motors with valuable information. Seeing how people use their cars everyday, and logging that data, can prove more valuable than the investment by giving the company key insights that their competition doesn’t have. It’s the same reason why Ford is investing so much time in connected mobility even though they’re still making automobiles.
The only thing we haven’t really seen is how this is going to affect people who don’t live in major metropolitan areas. Yes, cities are congested, and it makes sense to roll out these programs there. But there’s a whole swath of the country that doesn’t have congestion problems, so how do these solutions help those people?
At least right now, they don’t. But autonomous vehicles are coming, and so are the laws requiring their use. While it might not be in my lifetime, it is coming, and OEMs will need to come up with practical solutions for everyone.
It appears, at least today, GM is starting in that direction the right way.
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