Keeping your car safe usually means making sure that other people can’t get into it. For many people, their car is a prized possession, and something they want to protect from everyone else. However, a growing number of people are allowing strangers to rent their car through smart phone apps. Some experts believe that in the future, most people will simply rent a car when they need to use one, and give up owning a car at all.
Car Sharing
Car Sharing is a growing idea. Companies like Hiyacar allow you to rent out your car to people who pay you to use it. On Hiyacar, you simply register your car with the app, and go through a few checks to make sure you are who you say you are. People who use the app can then pay to use the car. They simply pay for it, pick it up from your address and return it when they are done.
Security
Using car sharing services like Hiyacar requires a new way of locking and driving cars. Users don’t want to wait for the owner to give them the spare key. To get around this, Hiyacar fit a box under the dashboard of your car. This uses the spare key of your car. Users can then wirelessly unlock and start the car using their app.
Insurance
If you want to temporarily add someone to your insurance on a regular policy, you might pay around £30 a day. However, Hiyacar have an agreement with Axa to make renting out your car significantly cheaper. Axa underwrite the policies – which drivers pay from £9 a day to purchase. This is a temporary policy which supersedes the owner’s policy for the duration of the hire period.
The Future?
Could companies such as Hiyacar represent the future of cars? Airbnb is partway through replacing traditional hotels with a peer to peer service. If Hiyacar can be successful, their model is likely to become cheaper and more prevalent. If you only need to use a car occasionally, perhaps there will be less need to actually own a car in the future.