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Self-Serve Car Rental

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the web-2.0-in-realspace dept.

abb_road writes "Claiming 'Web2.0 values meet Brick and Mortar,' BusinessWeek is reporting on an entirely self service car rental company. Zipcar customers make all reservations online or using a cell phone, then use a card-key to pick up their car from the parking garage--no attendants needed. According to the article, one of the other important attractions of the system is transparency; the reservations system allows you to see exactly what cars in the area will be available at what times, and then reserve or adjust your plans accordingly. From the article: 'If the nearest Mini convertible is booked until 3 p.m., the customer might postpone plans by an hour to get it -- or decide the Mazda with a sunroof on another lot will do.'"

6 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Annoying Trial by MrPsycho · · Score: 5, Funny

    This Evaluation of ZipCar 8.0 has expired. Please purchase the full version. Press your horn to continue.

  2. Re:Sounds Interesting by Karma+Farmer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Plus, what if someone hacked into the server and decided to "rent" a bunch of nice cars?

    What if someone in a monster truck drives over all the cars in the parking lot?

  3. Backgroung info on zipcar by k4_pacific · · Score: 2, Funny
    For those who don't remember, this is a followup to ZipCar's previous venture, a line of conveniently located car vending machines. The machines were essentially large parking garages that were built in major metropolitan areas. Customers would insert the MSRP of the car they wanted in dollars bills and change into the machine, then select their model using a Battleship-like combination of letters and numbers on a keypad. After selecting their model, a large steal coil would rotate and push the car off the parking garage. The car would then drop behind a door to be retrieved by the buyer. Unfortunately, the venture was fraught with problems from the start. Automakers wouldn't honor warranties on cars that had been dropped several stories, and many customers had difficulties obtaining refunds when they entered the wrong code and got a different model of car than they wanted.

    For more info, see the Wikipedia page on Zipcar.

    --
    Unknown host pong.
  4. Re:Maybe they will copy Blockbuster? by winkydink · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah. If you're more than 3 hours late, they bill the full value of the car to your credit card.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  5. Re:Sounds Interesting by telbij · · Score: 4, Funny

    What if someone in a monster truck drives over all the cars in the parking lot?

    LMAO.

    Good reason not to park in a huge line of cars: big temptation for monster truck drivers.

  6. Re:old news by blue+kazoo · · Score: 2, Funny
    Netherlands...major 40 cities

    Surely this is a typo!