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Vay Rolls Out a “Driverless Car” Rental Service
Courtesy of Vay
A Berlin-based startup called Vay is rolling out a car-rental service that delivers the car to you… without a driver.
Why It Hits: The ways consumers can now get from point A to point B have multiplied thanks to rideshare services and autonomous driving startups. But none have quite disrupted car rentals. Vay hopes to change that by ruling the market for micro-trips.
Between The Lanes: For those who need a car for an afternoon — not just a ride — Vay may be the best option.
If they’re in a service area, users can hail a car via the app, which is driven to them by a remote driver working out of a local office. Once the car — an electric Kia Niro — arrives, the user takes over the driving.
Vay says rentals cost half the price of an Uber ride: users pay $0.35 per minute while driving and $0.05 per minute while parked. Insider calculates that “a 30-minute drive to and from a destination, including an hour-and-a-half stop, would cost around $25.”
When they’re done, users can simply leave the car where they want (ideally not in the middle of the road), end the trip in the app, and a remote driver will drive it back to the office.
Last Turn: The 200-person Vay has already raised $200 million — a pretty remarkable feat for a company that currently operates only in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany, and Las Vegas, Nevada. It has allegedly completed 35,000 trips and relies on the competency of remote drivers operating cars from miles away. Those drivers use four onboard cameras (no fancy sensors), can’t exceed 25mph (and forget the freeway), and manage up to ten cars at a time — but not simultaneously, of course.
Come to think of it, this could spark a debate over which is safer: Waymo or Vay? AI or human?
Next Drive: While Vay’s remote drivers only operate the vehicles when a renter isn’t inside, future versions could introduce a surcharge for letting them take over even when someone is in the car — a bit like a remote chauffeur.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited, Polled, & Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.