“With a still small, but growing, market around people that want to rent out their personal cars to their neighbors, some consolidation seemed inevitable. On Tuesday startup RelayRides, which was one of the first companies to jump into the neighborhood car sharing market, announced that it has acquired Wheelz, a startup that had originally focused on building car sharing communities at universities.
RelayRides says it will acquire, among other things, Wheelz’s DriveBox technology, which enables Wheelz users to unlock and drive away in a rented car, without having to meet with the owner and get a key. Picture it basically like one of Zipcar’s unlocking and verification systems.” – Katie Fehrenbacher, GigaOm
We’re excited to see the continued evolution in the p2p carsharing space, as it proves its role as an integral part of transportation infrastructure by serving areas where traditional carsharing does not make sense, and making the most of the idle capacity of our vehicles. Technology is a crucial part of making this easier, so it will be interesting to see how Wheelz’ technology improves RelayRides’ offering.
