DriveShare Aims to Encourage Vintage Car Ownership

Inventors are continually innovating and making the world a better place. Some of their innovations include new medications or life-saving devices. Other inventions are to make life easier or more convenient, or just to allow people to have more fun. No matter how you look at it, though, most people would agree that technological growth has given people access to everything they might ever need. There's food delivery, transportation, short-term housing, and car rental, all available through apps on your cell phone. Now, Charles Fleming's L.A. Times article points out, there's even an online service designed specifically for lovers of vintage cars.

Airbnb, one of the most popular apps on the market, makes billions of dollars per year in revenue, by facilitating the rental of homes and apartments on a short-term basis. Apps like Getaround and Turo allow users to rent cars owned by other users in order to get around, but some users are looking for different styles of cars not usually offered by those ride-sharing apps. To address that demand, a group of innovators created an online service, dubbed “the Airbnb of classic cars,” called DriveShare, which allows users to rent (or rent out) vintage and classic cars.

Vintage cars are one of those commodities that just gain popularity as the years go on. In the modern day, where vehicles tend to be made of cheaper materials, with more electronic bells and whistles, some drivers prefer the experience of a sturdy, solid metal, classic car. They like the way they run, they like the way they look, and they especially enjoy how much more durable classic cars tend to be. Eventually, at some point in the future, "classic cars" won't be a thing anymore, because many of them are over 40 years old and only last so long, but for now, this business seems to be working.

The company was founded by a merger between a rental company called Classics&Exotics and one of the nation's largest vintage car insurance companies, Hagerty. The merger allowed for the company to gain access to a database of a million vintage vehicles, with around 300 types of car to choose from. The rental prices range from $99 to $3,300 per day for Porches to Lamborghinis and everything in between. According to the founders, this service has two goals: to give people the experience of driving a vintage car, to help them see if they might want to buy one themselves; and to help vintage car owners somewhat subsidize the cost of their vintage car by renting it out on a day-to-day basis. Both goals point toward one thing: the innovators who created DriveShare really seem to want people to have every opportunity to drive, or even own, a vintage car.

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Mobile Ordering Benefits Both Restaurants and Customers

Often, when you go to restaurant or coffee shop, you are plagued with the hassle of lines and long wait times. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just walk in and walk out minutes later with your order in hand? Fortunately, many restaurants have begun to introduce their own mobile applications that make the process easier for everyone. Samantha Bomkamp, in her L.A. Times article, describes some of the reasons why restaurants have embraced mobile apps and what benefits they can provide.

Mobile apps have the convenience factor that everyone wants. Instead of going into the store and waiting in a line behind a bunch of other people who may still need to decide on their order, you can open up the app on your way to the restaurant, decide what you want, place the order, and pay immediately. All you have to do is walk in and pick up your food, without even the need to stop to pay. Additionally, many fast food and coffee shops are revamping their service to include express lines for people who order online, thus shortening the wait times for everyone.

Pizza shops especially have been making mobile applications a large part of their business strategy. Because a significant portion of their business is already in the delivery sector, their apps have been developed to give customers many options and an easy interface to work with. That kind of app is easily transferable to the pick-up customers, many of whom prefer to tap a button than deal with having to describe their order over the phone. This year restaurants like Dominos and Taco Bell and even coffee shops like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have started developing their own applications, making the already fast food even more convenient.

Research has found that, when technology can be used to place an order, the frequency of customer visits rises 6% and average spending goes up by 20%. Because the technology makes it easier to order efficiently, customers are more likely to come back to the restaurants in the future. Additionally, third-party apps like Eastman Egg, an app based out of Chicago that not only lets customers order food from nearby restaurants, but also tracks their location to let the restaurant know the optimal time to start preparing the food so that it will be ready as close as possible to the time the customer arrives. With single restaurants, the app has been found to work wonders but has some issues with large chains like Starbucks that have multiple locations. One way or another, it seems that mobile apps are taking over the restaurant industry, and it's speeding up the process for everyone.

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General Motors Prepares to Become More Involved in "Ride-Sharing" Economy

Companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Lyft work based on opportunities available in what is called the "sharing economy." This generally means that their businesses run on the principle of connecting individuals that are willing to share their home or vehicle, for the right price. This type of business model is also known as "crowdsourcing" or "crowdfunding," and mainly involves the business creating an app or website, and acting as an impartial mediator between owners and consumers. Samantha Masunaga and Charles Fleming discuss, in their L.A. Times article, a new type of crowdsourced company called Maven, which involves the short-term rental of vehicles.

Just as Airbnb involves the short-term rental of a home, condominium, or apartment, Maven allows for users to "rent" a car for a short time. While the service has recently started in Ann Arbor, catering toward students at the University of Michigan, the company has plans to expand to other cities as the year progresses. Through this car sharing service, launched by General Motors, provides a free app on smartphones, which can be used to reserve a vehicle and unlock it. GM expects that a relationship with ride-sharing Lyft and its experience with services like OnTrac will help to make Maven a success.

General Motors is not the only company trying to get its foot in the door of this potentially lucrative business opportunity. Ford started a similar service in June and GM started a version in Germany called Car-Unity, which allowed rental to Facebook friends or members of the app's network. BMW has even begun to include features on their newest cars to allow for app-based connectivity. Everyone benefits: people have the ability to borrow a vehicle when they need one, and the owners of the vehicles are able to somewhat subsidize the costs of purchasing the vehicle in the first place.

Analysts wonder whether GM's decision, while bold, has long-term potential for the future. GM recently bought a failing ride-hailing company called Sidecar Technologies, Inc. and invested $500 million in Lyft. It seems that GM is trying to be prepared for any possible entrance into the ride-sharing market, and plans to do so by partnering with the best in the business. One day, GM hopes to partner with Lyft on an Autonomous On-Demand Network, which would even allow users to reserve self-driving cars. Although the market for self-driving cars has yet to fully expand, GM is planning ahead, predicting that today's investments will ensure success down the line.

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