Maven to Expand Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing to 10 US Cities by December

General Motors' Maven division is expanding a service that lets owners and lessees rent out their cars, Airbnb style. The so-called "peer-to-peer" car-sharing service launched in beta form in Chicago, Detroit, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, earlier this year. According to GM, it will also be available in Baltimore, Boston, Jersey City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., by the end of 2018.

Maven's peer-to-peer car-sharing service lets people rent out their cars by the hour or by the day, and charge users for the privilege. Owners set their own rates within a range determined by Maven, which also takes a cut from each rental. Maven previously said owners could earn hundreds of dollars per month, but the actual amount depends on how much the car is rented out, and how much the owner charges.

Owners can rent out any vehicles from GM's four brands, as long as they are 2015 or newer models, don't have manual transmissions, and don't have uncompleted recall repairs. Both drivers and renters must also go through a vetting process before being allowed to use the service, and GM backs rentals with a $1 million liability insurance policy.

Other services like Turo and Getaround are working the peer-to-peer car sharing angle, but Turo's fights with the City of San Francisco and Utah rental companies show that the concept may face significant opposition from regulators and existing businesses.

Peer-to-peer car sharing will operate alongside Maven's existing services. Maven offers traditional car-sharing using a fleet of vehicles owned by GM, as well as a service that rents cars to drivers working for Uber, Lyft, and other so-called "Gig Economy" companies. Maven claims to have booked over 186,000 reservations, with more than 338 million miles driven.

by: www.thedrive.com

Maven to Expand Peer to Peer Car Sharing to 10 US Cities by December
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