The world is full of car-sharing services, from Turo to Zipcar and beyond. Down in Australia, Uber had its own effort imaginatively named Uber CarShare. Sadly, that business has apparently fallen in a big heap, and has now shut down entirely.
And yet, a few months ago, the future looked so bright. See, earlier this year, Uber spent big on an Australian advertising campaign. They snagged Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas, and threw him in a Holden ute with a fancy teal wrap. His job was to advertise Uber Carshare, which was basically an easy way for people to rent cars off strangers using an app. It was an eye-catching campaign, with Bottas himself showing off his F1 bod in a tight pair of Speedos.
The company was giving out free rides and all kinds of merch in a hope to get more eyes on the service. We even drove the ute and took it to a meetup, before sending some of the Bottas merch to our brave members. The campaign drew plenty of eyeballs, but alas, it couldn’t save the business from failure.
What Happened?
Uber Carshare was an effort that kicked off in Australia back in 2012, though it didn’t begin under the Uber banner. Instead, it was established as “Car Next Door,” founded by Will Davies, David Trumbull, and Chloe Iliffe. The company expanded across Australia over the years, picking up investment from Hyundai in 2019 and a fleet of Ioniq EVs. In January 2022, it was acquired by Uber for a sum believed to be around $105 million.
The idea was simple—owners could lend out their vehicles to those in need of transportation. It was a simple app-based way of democratizing the concept of the rental car. It showed some promise, with the business obviously doing well enough to attract such a huge purchase price from Uber in the first place. There were even expansion plans for North America on the cards. Sadly though, in time, it became obvious the business model was no longer stacking up.
This was Uber’s last big push to make Carshare work.
“Due to increasing costs and operational challenges associated with insurance, thefts, and vehicle repairs, we’re making changes to our business model,” Uber said in a statement. “We are shifting our focus from peer-to-peer car-sharing to partnering with scaled car rental companies through products like Uber Rent.” Car Next Door may have been able to keep the business humming up until 2022, but Uber saw it falter in just over two short years.
In basic terms, Uber killed Carshare, and established Uber Rent instead to link people with traditional car rental providers. Uber announced last month that final bookings had to be made by August 27, while the service would shut down entirely by September 12. The app has since been deactivated, and users have been told to download any necessary receipts by October 6.
My personal experience is that Uber Carshare was a useful product. I’m not counting my rental of the Bottas ute, because that was an entirely manufactured experience. Instead, I’m referring to the time I used it to rent a van to grab furniture from Ikea. For under $80, I got a big VW van in poor condition for a full 24 hours. It was far easier than working with any other car rental service, and I was able to pick it up really close to my house. It enabled me to purchase a whole couch on a whim, something which I really appreciated.
The only negative I found about the service was the parking situation. I was responsible for returning the vehicle to street parking within a 1.5-kilometer radius (~1 mile) of the original pickup point. The problem was that I was required to find untimed parking so the vehicle wouldn’t get a parking fine. It took me a full half an hour of circling the block until somebody moved their car so I could return it. This kind of ruined the whole experience and made me think it was unworkable. Turns out I was right!
Look at reviews posted online, though, and it appears public opinion was altogether worse. Over on ProductReview.com.au, there are renters railing against the injustice and pain of using the service. Common complaints include users being charged for pre-existing damage, excess fuel charges, and similar parking issues to the one I mentioned.
Meanwhile, owners of vehicles on the platform complained about theft of their vehicles. In part, they put this down to insecure vehicle-mounted lockboxes used by the service.
Ultimately, even the big Bottas push couldn’t save Uber Carshare. The business faced rising costs, unhappy customers, and from there, it had nowhere to go. It’s unlikely to be particularly missed, but it’s interesting to see this happen just a few months after such a wide-spread advertising campaign. It appears that really was the last gasp before it all fell in a big heap. Vale.
Image credits: Lewin Day, ProductReview.com.au via screenshot, Uber Carshare
If you’re in Australia there’s a similar service called Drive Mate. Not sure if it’s available in your area but I think it works much the same way.
I never knew this even existed. When I lived in Sydney I used a company called .. something? (it was like 10-15 years ago, who can remember that far back?) who did something similar, only with their own vehicles. They also worked with local councils to have dedicated parking spots so you didn’t have to worry about finding a spot to leave it and they had swipe cards to get into the car. Worked good for urban living without owning your own car, I borrowed a van to pick up my stranded postie bike once and there was a yaris near my house that I used a few times. I guess they don’t exist anymore either, it’s a good idea but I imagine it’s hard to convince people they don’t need to own a car.
there’s a few. Flexishare and Goget. Used a hybrid Corolla today for work so I didn’t have to drive my manual cars through peak hour stop start traffic. They are basically every 500m in the city
Where do I get the speedo?
And why are they using realtor lockboxes again?
Never mind the speedo. Where do I get the Nazi porn-stache? I’d rock that in a heartbeat. /s
So is this the photo he uses on the dating app?
Yep. That’s a header graphic of a man’s head…on a man’s head. WTF is up with this editorial decision this morning? lol
Ricardo bought three cars to become a car share slumlord? FU, Ricardo.
I’ve always been iffy about the whole car share idea. If you’ve got a reliable beater that you want to make some cash on, it makes sense. But I’ve seen how people drive regular rentals, and to me it seemed like a industry that would be prone to abuse without the type of measures in place that an actual rental agency would employ. Still sad to see this thing fail, as it seemed like it filled an actual niche.
Uber should’ve realized they were Finnished when they posed Valtteri Bottas in a Speedo.
Given the existence of Turo and the like, there must be some people out there this business works for, but I just cannot imagine turning my car over to complete strangers for them to drive around.
Hi Mr. Data, your shuttlecraft was spotted at the scene of a murder/hit and run/robbery. We have a warrant for your arrest.