Peer-to-peer car rental consolidates: Relay Rides aqcuires Wheelz
Relay Rides announced today that they will acquire Wheelz, a competing peer-to-peer carsharing company. Wheelz was the smallest of the three peer-to-peer carsharing companies in the Bay Area with about 50 total vehicles for use in the Bay Area, compared to Relay Ride's approximately 300 vehicles and 800 available on GetAround. FlightCar offers peer-to-peer carsharing at the airport and its fleet of vehicles changes continuously.
The big gain for RelayRides appears to be in acquiring Wheelz’s “DriveBox” technology, which enables a renter to unlock a vehicle using a smartphone, so renters and car owners don’t have to meet in person to hand off the keys.
2013-05-14