The service, called Maven, will offer customers access to vehicles waiting to be picked up around a given city, similar to existing platforms like Zipcar and Car2Go. Drivers can reserve and unlock Maven cars with a smartphone app, while the vehicles will be decked out with high-tech features like on-board wireless access, satellite radio and the latest smartphone-syncing software from Apple and Google.
Maven’s car-sharing program will initially roll out in Ann Arbor, Michigan, close to GM’s home in Detroit. Through Maven, GM will also be either expanding or launching new residential car-sharing programs in Chicago and New York City, along with other experiments in the U.S. and abroad.
GM’s Maven will be entering a tough business. Zipcar, which popularized the car-sharing idea in cities and on college campuses, sold itself to Avis Budget Group in 2013 amid trouble keeping profits up. However, Maven will have an advantage in that costs will presumably be lower given its ties to an automaker. And consumers are likely more comfortable with car-sharing programs today than they were three years ago.
Maven can best be understood as GM’s response to changing American attitudes about cars. Young Americans in particular are less likely than ever to view car ownership as the coming-of-age rite it has long been considered. A recent study out of the University of Michigan found a notable drop in the number of licensed drivers 25 years old and younger. That’s perhaps a result of young professionals seeking economic opportunities in large cities where relying on public transportation and on-demand ride-hailing services like Uber is seen as cheaper and more convenient than owning and maintaining a vehicle.
That shift in thinking is a threat to automakers, who have long benefitted from suburban American families’ desire for one or more cars per household. Another looming threat comes from self-driving technology, which stands to further upend the automotive industry.
For GM, offering its own car-sharing service is a bulwark against these shifts in the automotive business. The Maven announcement comes just weeks after the company announced a $500 million investment in Uber rival Lyft, and days after it spent what’s almost certainly a far smaller amount on technology and other parts from Sidecar, another Uber competitor that recently closed up shop. Taken together, these moves mirror similar steps taken by other American automakers like Ford Motor Company to transform themselves from automakers into so-called “mobility companies” that will provide the transportation options of the future, whatever form they may take.
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Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit, Flagship Records.
For The #FacebookTeam