Maven's Deric Harwood on ride-sharing and the road to autonomous cars
Scott Collie
12 hours ago
It used to be simple being a car manufacturer: develop new cars, give them to dealerships and start all over again. It's a very different landscape in 2017. Increasingly congested cities, the rising cost of ownership and more viable alternatives for getting to A to B means buying a car is no longer a rite of passage for young people. As a result, big manufacturers are getting into the business of "mobility services" that focus on moving people without necessarily selling them a car. Within the GM ranks, that push has led to the creation of Maven.
New Atlas spoke with Deric Harwood, head of Maven in Chicago about the growth of ride sharing, and how it is helping develop autonomous cars.
Compared to car sharing services like ZipCar, Maven is still very young. Launched in Ann Arbor during January 2016, the service is now online in more than 17 American cities, and users have racked up over 50 million miles in its cars. The full spectrum of General Motors brands is on offer, although the range of cars changes from city-to-city. After all, GMC four-wheel drives with ski racks on the roof are unlikely to win many fans in Atlanta.
Whenever we write about car sharing, there's a real focus on young users. Buying a car is a big commitment, and many city-dwelling millennials don't see the need (or can't afford) to spend money on parking, insurance, gas and maintenance for a vehicle they might only drive once a month. Maven aims to appeal to this crowd with a model low on commitment.
"One of the great things Maven has is that there's no membership fee, you're not committed to it," Harwood says. "You sign up for it and use it as you please... [which] attracts people who may not normally want to give something like this a try."
"Seventy-five percent of our member base in Chicago are millennials," he continues. "Chicago is a very young town, and you have a lot of these people in the [millennial] age group who get jobs in Chicago. They're moving to Chicago and they can't afford to have a car payment and an insurance payment and a garage fee payment. Forget it!"
The benefits of a setup like this are twofold for General Motors. For one, it gets to earn money from people who can't afford to buy a car, and puts itself at front-and-square in their minds when the time comes to invest in wheels of their own. There's no better way of showing off your product than letting people drive, play with and properly experience it.
continues at newatlas.com |
