Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing

**broxholm** · Jun 11th, 2011, 05:27 PM

I know people must have cars they don't use too often. This article suggests that peer-to-peer car sharing could be gaining traction. Sounds like a good idea to me, and maybe it sparks some ideas in fellow Fastlaners.

Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing Gains Traction in Oregon - NYTimes.com

Getaround - Peer-to-peer car sharing and local car rental

RelayRides - Neighbor-to-Neighbor Carsharing

**SitesForSales** · Jan 20th, 2012, 01:12 AM

You'd risk your insurance and your car - and having your car used in a Felony?

You'd want some loser who can't afford to buy or rent a car to be using yours?

Unless you come up with a patent for urine and barf-proof seat covers
and this is your marketing strategy - Good luck with that.

**MizTiger** · Mar 1st, 2012, 12:01 PM

Yeah, the insurance premiums would be through the roof. It's a safe bet to say a company's HR seminar would make a point to go over company car usage and wouldn't approve company cars being loaned out to more than one person. I mean, there's already a pretty healthy dose of business men and women taking turns carpooling each other to and from work. In fact, back in 2008 when the economy took a dip and gas prices were high, carpooling percentages spiked. This article mentions a few of the numbers, but interestingly enough does talk about a carpooling service that's thriving in Europe...so I guess that's not entirely out of the question.

**VinceT** · Mar 1st, 2012, 05:02 PM

Whipcar seems to be doing quite well in the UK, there is the question of population density since this will only be useful in areas where people live pretty close together.

**Giles** · Mar 1st, 2012, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by SitesForSales

You'd risk your insurance and your car - and having your car used in a Felony?

You'd want some loser who can't afford to buy or rent a car to be using yours?

Unless you come up with a patent for urine and barf-proof seat covers
and this is your marketing strategy - Good luck with that.

Geez where do you live where you have to be so worried about 'losers' barfing and pissing in your car while doing a Felony.

Sure there might be a case of this every so often but there will be ways of preventing/minimizing the chances of this happening.

The concept of Couch Surfing is working fine (people who don't want to pay hotels/motels use spare beds/couches at your average Joes house) so I believe the same concept can be used for cars. I usually have a spare car laying around and would rent it to tourists if someone came up with a good way to run the system.

Edit: A quick look at existing services show they do background checks on borrowers before they can use the service (including driving history), and all cars lent are covered by a $1mill insurance policy which leaves your individual insurance policy untouched. The existing services also have in place ways to cover fines, damage, break downs - everything!