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Next Carsharing Advance: Electric Cars From a Vending Machine
cartechboy writes "When you're in a waiting room and get hungry, what do you do? You hit the vending machine for a candy bar or some salty snack food. Now, if you're in China and you need to borrow an electric car from the local car-sharing service, you can do exactly the same thing: go and get one from the vending machine. Just like the Smart-car dispensers seen across Europe, the Kandi car-sharing service dispenses two-seat electric cars with a 75-mile range from a big tower that looks like a huge vending machine full of candy, errrrr, cars. It costs $3.25 an hour to rent one, and China hopes it'll help cut emissions from transportation. So the next time you're in China, and you need a car, just hit up the biggest vending machine you can find."
In Fascist China, car rents you!
Borderlands game play to me.
I think I read that novel.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
If this is the sole purpose of your visit, you might want to wait a while.
They've only built two of the car-vending machines so far (although they're working on more).
IS big in the usa with rent a car places and this system may even end having no one one site and you just get a bill the mail for the damage and they will not fix it and just bill each renter.
is there anything new for us to try that Japan hasn't beat us to?
How would you fit an American in a car that small?
A "car vending machine" is an automated garages, only instead of giving you your own car back when you insert your credit card in the slot, it gives you a rental car.
Not really an earth-shattering concept...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Anyone else get a headache trying to read this?
I can see the headlines now:
Twelve Dead, Dozens Missing After Disgruntled Customer Tips Vending Machine
Slightly, but I'm skilled in the linguistics of potato. Let me try and translate:
As I understand it, this guy's insisting that car rental places are running a scam whereby they bill you for pre-existing damage to the car, and believes with a giant Chinese car vending machine in place, you'd just automagically get billed for damage to the car, without any human involvement.
As someone who rents cars all the time, I've yet to ever receive any sort of bill for pre-existing damage, superficial or not. I'm kind of curious if he's full of shit (aka, taking a car back with massive new dents from, say, throwing potatoes at it) or if there's a specific rental outfit I should continue to avoid.
OMG. Do not do it.
Got back from three weeks vacation out there. Driving is insane.
*ALL* driving rules are optional. And you might be thinking 'yeah, I sometimes break the driving laws.' No. It's not like that.
Do you routinely cut off oncoming traffic to make a left?
Do you routinely stop in the middle of the street and get out of your car (for whatever reason)?
Do you routinely drive down the emergency lane on freeways?
Do you routinely drive on the wrong side of the road?
These are all things that happen *all the time*. Not just sometimes. Insanity.
I've gotten a bill from a rental with a pre-existing window chip. It was even noted on the walk-around. I pointed that out, and they agreed to go after the guy who had it before me. They will try their best to make *someone* pay. Even if unethically. Likely, they would try to make the guy *after* me pay for it, even with proof it was pre-existing, if he didn't note it on the damage card (it wasn't listed on mine, but I added it).
Some places are better than others. I've rented a car in Bethel, AK that looked like it was rolled. There was about 1/4" of mud coving the floor, and half the plastic trim inside was falling off. most of the time for the first day, every time I tried to close the door, I'd end up pulling out some piece off the car door.
They didn't inspect the car for damage before accepting it back. Though they did initially apologize because they didn't have time to clean it before I got there (they had a fleet of something like 3 cars, and I got the worst one, as it was busy then).
Learn to love Alaska
Nothing new. Nothing special,
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Who prevents you to walk once around the car and photograph it from all sides (with your cell phone)?
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
but at that point the car is your responsibility and ours ends as soon as it comes out of the vending system.
I noticed from the video how much space there was between two rows of cars. I would have expected that it would be able to park more cars than in a standard car parking lot, in this case it looks like there is more space.
I don't understand why the car itself can't be the vending machine. Insert your credit card into the car, etc.
Yes, our gigantic penises and testicles would indeed make that a challenge.
You're talking about the BandAid method. BandAids come with "Sterility Guaranteed unless opened" printed on them. Of course, you can't check to see if they're sterile without opening them, and then they are no longer guaranteed to be sterile.
that is what you get for renting from el-chico's shitball rent a car behind a gas station
Which, one of the majors trying for fraud against me, or renting a car in a town so small the bug players don't go, and el-chico's is the only place? And isn't el-chico a little racist? It implies Mexicans are cheap and low quality. There are plenty of immigrants in Alaska, but a larger number are Pacific Rim or Caribbean. Perhaps "rent-a-wreck" is what you meant, though a large chain stole the name after it had been used in jest for years.
Learn to love Alaska
I also take photos of every single bit of damage before I accept the car. The ones they try to bill are the ones that dare to not buy the add on "insurance" You want the insurance right, because something might happen to you. Guido, tell him more about the insurance...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Uhm, are they developing androids as well? If so I recommend people grab "Tubular Android Superheroes" to get tips on how to avoid being mind controlled.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
I tried to get one out of the vending machine but it jammed. I swiped my card again and got a second car free. Bonus!
If, after you drop your roll of quarters (or renminbi equivalent) into the machine and the car does not quite drop off the end of the rack, call for help. Rocking this vending machine could be fatal.
you have to return the car as each hour it's out will cost you and I think when hit's so much then it's the full price of the car and that better not go over your credit limit as then it's GTA.
Somewhat irrelevant trivia: in Toronto there is a moving company called "El Cheapo." Their motto is "Don't be a shmoe call EL CHEAPO" (replete with missing comma.) Ecce!
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Sell it near Bar/Pub!
> The traffic is like none North Americans have ever seen as well; Six rings of highways in Beijing, every road completely jammed with cars at all hours of the day.
That's where I stopped reading. Utter nonsense/hyperbole.
Max.