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Uber and GM announce car rental trial for drivers in San Francisco
Uber Technologies Inc. and General Motors Co. have signed a new deal that will see the automotive giant rent cars to Uber drivers through its Maven rental service.
The deal, announced Tuesday, will initially begin as a 90-day trial in Uber’s hometown of San Francisco and allows drivers to rent GM vehicles for $179 a week plus taxes and fees. Drivers who rent the vehicles will also be able to use them for personal use when they are not driving for Uber.
Uber has existing deals with Enterprise Holdings and The Hertz Corp. that allow drivers to hire cars at reasonable rates, and in May signed a memorandum of understanding with Toyota Motor Corp. that included the ability for Uber drivers to lease vehicles as opposed to renting them.
“We want options that fit around [drivers’] lives,” Uber General Manager Rachel Holt is reported by Recode to have told reporters during a press call.
Hedging bets
For GM, the announcement comes as a surprise given they are a major investor in Uber rival Lyft Inc. and already offer a rental service to its drivers, though one difference is that rental fees for drivers are waived if they undertake 65 or more Lyft rides a week.
The deal would appear to be a case of GM hedging its bets, something confirmed by a GM insider who spoke to Bloomberg:
GM initially picked Lyft, in part, because Uber had little interest in working with a major carmaker, said a person familiar with the matter. As Uber began to grow fast, raise capital from Toyota Motor Corp. and sell its China business for a stake in ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, GM started to look at hedging its bets.
In an interesting twist, GM itself is stating that its relationship with Lyft is more focused on autonomous vehicles. “The fact that we have attracted both Lyft and Uber is a strong sign for Maven,” GM spokesperson Annalisa Esposito Bluhm said.
The move is another sign of growing attempts by automakers to make sure they remain relevant in an age of declining car ownership, typified last week when Toyota invested in car sharing service Getaround.
Image credit: mstable/Flickr/CC by 2.0
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