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Updated 08/13/2012 09:51 AM
Tech Beat: New service allows users to rent cars to others
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Would you let someone, a complete stranger, borrow your car? What if that complete stranger paid you, used it only when you weren't using it and you could be assured your car would be returned in one piece or at least fixed up if it wasn't? Well, that's pretty much how a car sharing service called
Relay Rides works.
"If you have a car and you're not using it, you can rent it out to people in your neighborhood and make on average $250 a month while you're helping out one of your neighbors to get around," Shelby Clark, the founder of Relay Rides, said. "If you can use a car, you can find a car in your neighborhood starting at super affordable rates starting at $5 an hour, $25 a day. And Relay Rides provides insurance to make it safe and an all in marketplace to handle the transaction and make it really simple."
As the car owner, you set the price for your car per hour, day or week and then list on a calendar when it's free. Typically, when a car is borrowed, the owner meets up with the renter and hands off the key.
Now, though, through a just announced deal with GM, cars with OnStar can be unlocked remotely through a mobile phone app. In that case, the keys are just left in the center console.
For some, your car is like your baby, so before lending it to a complete stranger, you're going to want some serious assurances that stranger isn't going to wreck it, trash it or just flat-out mistreat it.
"We understand a car is a very personal possession, so we spent a lot of time thinking about trust and safety," Clark said. "So on the safety side, we have an insurance policy that covers every car. So the car owner keeps their policy and covers them when they drive and as soon as someone rents the car, then the Relay Rides policy is on the hook. In addition, we screen the driving record of every renter and only approve safe drivers. Plus, we have 24-hour roadside assistance."
And both car owners and renters get rated through the RelayRides.com community so that, just like with eBay, if someone is consistently rated as a total slob, others on the site can choose to avoid that person.