General Motors has announced the launch of a peer-to-peer rental program, allowing GM owners to list their personal vehicles to rent through the automaker’s car-sharing platform, The Washington Post reports.
Dubbed Peer Cars, the program lets Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac owners put their cars and trucks up for rent when they aren’t using them.
The company is touting the service as a way for GM customers to earn extra income. The service is an expansion of GM’s car-sharing platform, Maven, which rents out GM-owned cars, the company said.
“Your car is one of the most expensive things you own. Sitting idle, it is a wasted asset,” says Julia Steyn, vice president of General Motors urban mobility and Maven. “Maven’s peer-to-peer offering is a smart way for owners to offset their vehicle investment.”
The Washington Post says the announcement is another signal that one of America’s iconic companies is evolving from its traditional role as an automaker to a business that sells individual rides via rentals and ride-hailing fleets.
In January, GM unveiled its first autonomous car, a vehicle known as the Cruise AV, which lacks a steering wheel, pedals and manual controls. Beginning in 2019, the fourth generation of that vehicle will be used in a ride-hailing service in multiple American cities, where “the vehicles will travel on a fixed route controlled by their mapping system.”
GM said that more than 150,000 people already use Maven. The vehicles on the platform are insured through GM’s $1 million policy, and Maven members are “thoroughly vetted” before they can use the service, GM said.
GM’s Peer Cars follows the on-demand car-sharing model of start-ups such as Turo and Getaround. With 250,000 cars and 850 models available to users around the world, Turo is the largest peer-to-peer car-sharing network.
