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Apple announced a host of auto-centric applications and features for iPhones both new and old at yesterday's 2009 World Wide Developers Conference, ranging from driving games to TomTom toys to Zipcar control. The full spectrum of new Apple auto-erotica below. More »
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Apple announced a new iPhone application for car-sharing service Zipcar at today's 2009 World Wide Developers Conference. The app will allow users to find, reserve and control zipcars from their phones. Yes, control. More »
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Connect by Hertz, the company's new car-sharing service, lets consumers snag an iPod-enabled, GPS-equipped car for a few hours at a price not increased by typical rental fees. Sound familiar? More »
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This morning, nearly 800 Southern California members of the Zipcar car-sharing service received an email informing them that the company would be refocusing its business on college markets. This will reduce the overall Zipcar fleet in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas from 90 vehicles to something closer to 35. In an interview with Jalopnik, ZipCar's President and COO, Mark Norman, admitted that this would be "a tough retrenchment for a number of members in Southern California," and that the Cambridge, MA-based company, which merged with Seattle-based Flexcar last year, was bracing for a certain amount of disappointment among members who have grown accustomed to service in areas such as Downtown L.A. "It's a matter of placing bets on what we know will succeed," Norman said. More »
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Flexcar/Zipcar users around Washington State are going to see the price of their car sharing rise this week as a nearly 10% car rental tax is going to be applied to their services. The rental car companies were displeased with the exemption for car sharing since they consider their services comparable, and the state's tax collectors agreed. There's an interesting balance at work here. On one hand, car sharing services (like rental car companies) utilize public roads and benefit from many public entities and should therefore pay taxes. On the other hand, the company does pay taxes on its income, gas, payroll, et cetera and helps the city lower its congestion by allowing numerous people to use one car. In the end, what happens will be a matter of who is willing to fight harder for/against the exemption. [Marketplace] More »
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Zipcar announced on Wednesday that it was acquiring rival Flexcar in an effort to head off competition. With the addition of Flexcar's business, Zipcar extends to approximately 5,000 vehicles and 180,000 members. The hope is this will let them compete with the big name operators, such as Enterprise and U-Haul, which have started to move in on their turf. Zipcar remembers the key to urban business: it's all about getting that dope product and getting them dope corners. [AP] More »
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America's number-two car company, Hertz, has announced that it will start offering hourly car rental service at three locations in Manhattan starting today. Hertz will be the first of the major rental companies to offer the service, charging as little as $12 in some cases. This is obviously a move to compete with companies such as Zipcar, which are already offering hourly rentals for people who just need a car to pick up groceries or take their cat to the vet. More »
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Five graffiti artists, including three from Europe, were busted in Boston this weekend for "conspiracy to tag" subway cars and various other public items in the run up to a massive underground naked graffiti party. This wouldn't be particularly newsworthy except for the fact that this international group of taggers were running around in a Zipcar. Though covered in paint, they claimed they were just looking for a place to eat in the middle of the night. Unfortunately for them, the GPS device in the Zipcar was on the hapless and clueless lawbreakers brought with them and police were able to trace the group to several incidents of graffiti. Fortunately for them, the cops didn't freak out and shut down the city at the sight of unsolicited public art this time. Let this be a lesson: if you're going to rent a car for a crime spree... Enterprise will pick you up and won't follow your every move. Zipcar makes a great choice because of its affordability...and really...has nothing to do with this obviously gadget-heavy story. – Matt Hardigree More »
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While Philly may stand immortal as the East Coast's City of Brotherly Love, Beantown's vying hard for the City of Corporate Synergy title. Swedish furnishings despot Ikea and share-the-weath auto-leaser Zipcar have teamed up to give urban Boston dwellers a shot at the Rotera, the Ektorp and other oddly-named items for the home that sadly reside 20 miles outside of town. At six bucks an hour, the Ikean Zipcars are $2.50 off the regular rate. The only downside as TransportTrends points out is that at some point, what all Ikea-bingers really need is a truck. More »
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Man, this would've come in handy when we were stuck carless for a semester at a liberal-arts college close to everything but decent public transit the six-year-old Zipcar auto-sharing company has inked deals with colleges including Brown, Rutgers, U Minn and U Mass-Boston, giving students, staff and faculty an opportunity to buy into the car-sharing service. Literally, we can't think of why this wasn't an immediate target market for Zipcar and rival Flexcar from the get-go, unless it took administrators time to warm up to the idea. More »
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