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Uber And Lyft might be toast

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

Uber and Lyft can’t survive the transition to autonomous ride-hailing without cooperation from car manufacturers. Uber and Lyft have nothing that car manufacturers need, so cooperation is unlikely to be forthcoming over the long term. The default scenario is bankruptcy; the best case scenario might be acquisition at a small fraction of current valuations.

Introduction: the existential threat

Human drivers can’t compete with self-driving cars in the ride-hailing market. Uber and Lyft therefore can’t compete with forthcoming autonomous ride-hailing services like Tesla’s planned Tesla network, GM’s Cruise Anywhere or Ford’s as yet unnamed service. This is why Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick reportedly called self-driving an “existential threat” to Uber. Uber and Lyft’s survival therefore depends on transitioning to autonomous ride-hailing. Unfortunately for these two companies, this doesn’t look likely.

The no-win scenario

Uber and Lyft lack any manufacturing capacity, so they are beholden to car manufacturers that won’t be eager to share revenue if they can avoid it. As I just mentioned, Tesla and GM are building their own autonomous ride-hailing services. While GM currently has a strategic partnership with Lyft, it is unlikely to last long-term. Ultimately, GM has what Lyft needs and Lyft has nothing GM needs. The same goes for Uber’s partnership with Daimler.

This is the same fundamental problem faced by Alphabet’s Waymo, Intel’s Mobileye and Apple. Car manufacturers’ cooperation is needed, but they have no incentive to give it. Unlike Alphabet, Mobileye and Apple, however, Uber and Lyft have no means to buy a car manufacturer.

Ride-hailing is the easy part

You might object that GM needs Lyft’s ride-hailing competence. But experience with human-powered ride-hailing has limited usefulness in building an autonomous ride-hailing service. If a company can develop full self-driving software, it can make a ride-hailing app. Many traditional taxi companies have launched their own apps in response to Uber and Lyft. These apps aren’t as good as Uber or Lyft, but plug them into self-driving cars and both the price and service would be superior.

Conversely, if a company can’t crack self-driving, there is no point working on a ride-hailing app. If you have an app but no cars, the app is useless. Investors should not therefore put any importance on whether a company already has a ride-hailing app.

The prognosis looks dire

Uber and Lyft can’t survive if other companies launch autonomous ride-hailing services before them. They can’t launch autonomous ride-hailing services without cooperation from manufacturers, which is currently occurring to a minor extent but is likely to be withheld when the stakes are higher. The default outcome, then, is that they go bankrupt.

A combination of companies’ announced timelines (e.g. Tesla’s and Ford’s) and forecasts from research reports by ARK Invest and RethinkX puts the launch of the first autonomous ride-hailing service in the 2019-2021 range. This means that Uber and Lyft have two to four years to completely turn things around. Is this possible?

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4099080-uber-lyft-might-toast?page=2

• What do Uber and Lyft have that car manufacturers need?

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GM’s Maven assembling building blocks for ride, delivery services

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

General Motors Co’s Maven car sharing and rental unit is expanding its partnerships in ride and delivery services as parent GM considers whether to enter the on-demand mobility business now dominated by Uber Technologies and Lyft Inc. The trick will be not to alienate the two ride services startups, whose drivers are leasing thousands of GM vehicles.

Maven already has begun to pull away from Lyft, in which GM holds a 9 percent stake, with its own Gig leasing business, officials said. Through Gig, Maven can provide GM vehicles directly to ride-sharing drivers who previously leased them through Lyft Express Drive and Uber Vehicle Solutions.

While executives say its future role has yet to be fully defined, Maven also has been assembling knowledge and expertise. This could enable GM to eventually offer on-demand mobility services, similar to those provided by Uber and Lyft, to a new generation of consumers who buy access to transportation by the hour.

Like other automakers keen to address the sharing economy, GM through Maven is testing a variety of on-demand services, from peer-to-peer car sharing to fractional ownership. So far, opinion is divided on whether and how much such on-demand services will supplant the industry’s traditional vehicle ownership model.

Asked if GM aims to create its own ride and delivery service, Maven boss Julia Steyn says, “You’re on the right track. We are building this out step by step.” Maven focused initially on car sharing at its launch in early 2016, then quickly added third-party leasing services through Uber and Lyft. Now it has partnered with on-demand delivery services GrubHub (meals), Instacart (groceries) and Roadie (packages), as well as HopSkipDrive, an on-demand ride share service aimed at children of working parents.

Continue reading… https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gm-maven-idUSKCN1AW2CN

GM’s MAVEN is working on ride-sharing.

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Uber and Lyft grab more business from taxis and rental cars

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

Business travelers are increasingly turning to Uber and Lyft while taking fewer cabs and renting fewer cars. Money spent on rental cars and taxis each fell by two percent to 29 percent and eight percent, respectively.

New data show business travelers are increasingly turning to Uber and Lyft while taking fewer cabs and renting fewer cars when out on the road. Certify, a travel management firm which handles corporate travel transactions, analyzed more than 10 million receipts filed in the second quarter. It found the amount of money spent on rental cars and taxis each fell by two percent. Rental cars controlled 29 percent of the ground-travel expenses for business travelers and taxis had eight percent.

Meanwhile, both Uber and Lyft grew their share of the ground transportation market by two percent. Uber controlled 55 percent of the ground travel expenses for business travelers while Lyft had eight percent.

“The revolution in ground transportation we’re seeing today led by Uber and Lyft has far reaching implications for the future of corporate travel,” said Robert Neveu, CEO, Certify. For many corporate travelers, the switch from renting a car to taking an Uber or Lyft helps explains why companies like Hertz have struggled in recent years. In the second quarter, Hertz lost $28 million. The stock, which traded at just under $125 in August 2014 has dropped to just under $17.

Meanwhile, taxi operators in large cities are reeling from the rise in popularity of ride sharing. Early this year, a New York City taxi medallion, which is required to operate a taxi in the country’s largest city, sold for $241,000. Four years ago, a taxi medallion in New York sold for $1.3 million.

Continue reading… https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/uber-and-lyft-grab-more-business-from-taxis-and-rental-cars.html

Uber and Lyft grab more business from rental cars and taxis.

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The sharing economy is failing for one simple reason – people can’t be trusted

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

The inherent problem with many of the biggest players is that their business models are based on trust, yet they’re growing so quickly that they’re forgetting that.

Earlier this month an article in the South China Morning Post underscored just how bizarre the world of business has become.

A Chinese startup offering to lend umbrellas to urbanites on the go was reportedly dealt a major blow when 300,000 of its umbrellas went missing within mere months of the venture launching. The umbrella-sharing scheme required customers to make an initial deposit equivalent to just over £2 after which they were charged 6p for every half hour of use.

Predictably perhaps, problems stemmed from the portability of the object upon which the whole system relied: busy city dwellers clearly liked the idea of having prompt access to a sometimes unwieldy umbrella when the heavens opened, but they were then taking the umbrellas home, stashing them away and forgetting about them altogether.

The company appeared to have overestimated the trust and reliability of its consumer base, while disregarding the fact that humans are inherently selfish. Fortunately, the damage in this case appears not to have been prohibitive. Sharing E Umbrella – as the company is called – has indicated that it’s heading back to the drawing board and is hoping to re-launch with 30 million new umbrellas by the end of the year. But the case nonetheless serves as a powerful metaphor for the exploding sharing economy and the risks it bears.

The anecdote is also suggestive of the fact that – as the sharing economy becomes a staple of our vocabulary and starts to penetrate most sectors of global industry – we may well be underestimating one highly unpredictable X Factor. Namely, the human factor: We can’t be trusted. Nothing we do is ever altruistic and – to make matters worse – we’re often quite stupid. Sorry, but it’s true.

The sharing economy is gargantuan. A recent research report published by Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimates the value of it is about $250bn (£190bn) and it’s growing rapidly. It’s not hard to understand why it’s flourished in recent years. It aims to unlock the value of unused, or underused, assets, saving us time, hassle and – crucially – money. We’re still scarred by one of the worst recessions in history and many of us are natives of the World Wide Web. That’s what defines our habits.

We want top service, at rock-bottom prices, at the click of a button within the hour, and so the seeds have been sown for the emergence of car-sharing apps (Uber), rental companies (AirBnB), collaborative work spaces (WeWork) and entertainment sites (Spotify), to name but a few.

As availability grows, though, so too does the scope for trouble.

Earlier this month, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that a company was forced to temporarily shut down a string of shared napping pods for sleep-deprived workers in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, on concerns the capsules could become a shelter for criminals.

Rachel Botsman, the author of the book The Rise Of Collaborative Consumption, told the publication Fast Company that we’re experiencing “a seismic shift from individual getting and spending towards a rediscovery of collective good.”

Except, to my mind, the problem seems to be that we’re not actually hardwired to care about this collective good. What we care about is maximising our own resources. We want a cheap holiday and are willing to throw caution to the wind. While we’re away, we don’t want our apartment to sit empty when we could be using it to foot the bill of said holiday. We want a car to pick us up and take us home. Getting a cheap ride is more important than knowing that our driver is safe, reliable and honest.

Our overwhelming demand for an effortless existence is encouraging the rise of supply at such a rapid pace that we risk losing sight of the basics: protection and regulation.

Perhaps the most distressing evidence of things getting out of control has been served up by Uber – a veritable doyenne of the sharing economy. Sexual assault claims levelled against drivers for the company have been blamed by campaigners on lacklustre background checks. Could that be because of how fast the company has expanded?

Continue reading… http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/uber-airbnb-sharing-economy-people-cant-be-trusted-a7867301.html

Is the sharing economy failing because people cannot be trusted?

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Cruise is running an autonomous ride-hailing service for employees in SF

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

Cruise, the self-driving startup acquired by GM last year, is already operating a complete autonomous ride-hailing service in San Francisco for its employees. The service is called “Cruise Anywhere,” and it allows employees to use a smartphone app to get anywhere they need to go in SF, seven days a week.

Cruise Anywhere is in beta, hence the employee-only restriction, but the company says that some employees are already using it as their primary source of transportation, replacing either personal vehicle ownership, public transit or traditional ride-hailing services completely. In total, Cruise says 10 percent of its SF employees are using the beta, and more are being enrolled each week with a waitlist currently in place.

“We’ve always said we’d launch first with a rideshare application, and this is in line with that and just further evidence of that,” said Cruise CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt in an interview. “We’re really excited about how the technology is evolving, and the rate at which it’s evolving. This is a manifestation of that — putting the app in people’s hands and having them use it for the first time and make AVs their primary form of transportation.”

During testing in San Francisco, Cruise has revealed in videos that an app is used to call its prototype AVs. But the company is focused on developing the hailing component as a full-fledged service itself, not just for testing purposes. The aim is to create something that can stand on its own, as Cruise believes that all aspects of the self-driving experience are important to differentiating one autonomous technology provider from another.

“We see a future where we’re open to partnering with one network or partner, many partners or even no partners if that’s the best way to release this technology and achieve the societal benefits of driverless cars sooner,” Vogt explained, noting that focusing on all aspects of the service gives them more flexibility with a go-to-market strategy.

Cruise employees are able to use the Cruise Anywhere services between 16 and 24 hours per day depending on availability of the R&D fleet that Cruise operates in SF, and this pool of vehicles is set to grow by more than 100 cars in the next couple of months, which should expand operational hours. It’s available across all of the mapped area of San Francisco where the test fleet operates, and the app works like any ridesharing experience, mapping ride requesters with available cars.

Continue reading…https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/08/cruise-is-running-an-autonomous-ride-hailing-service-for-employees-in-sf/?utm_medium=TCnewsletter

Cruise offers autonomous ride-hailing service in San Francisco.

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Driverless-car outlook shifts as Intel takes over Mobileye

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

About three years ago, the chip giant Intel seemed like a bystander in Silicon Valley’s race to develop self-driving cars.

Google was zooming ahead, producing and testing autonomous cars of its own design and racking up millions of miles in test drives. Uber, the ride-hailing service, was close behind. Tesla introduced its Autopilot feature to its electric cars, using technology from the Israeli firm Mobileye.

Even in microchips, its strength, Intel was scrambling to catch up to its rival Nvidia, whose superfast processors were attracting automakers because of their ability to fuse images from the cameras and radar sensors to detect obstacles. But Intel is betting that it can reshape the competitive landscape with its acquisition of Mobileye, which makes cameras, sensors and software that enable cars to detect what is ahead. With the $15.3 billion deal, which closed Tuesday, Intel gains instant credibility because Mobileye already supplies technology to most major automakers and is a leader in areas like digital mapping and sensors.

“Intel now has a very big footprint in all parts of the autonomous vehicle, the brains, the sensors, the information side, the mapping,” said Mike Ramsey, a Gartner analyst who tracks the development of self-driving cars. “The acquisition clearly puts Intel in the conversation. It guarantees they will be a player.”

There are increasing signs that autonomous cars have arrived — and may be driving on our city streets sooner than we think.

Mobileye will remain based in Israel, and its co-founder Amnon Shashua will head all of Intel’s autonomous-vehicle efforts. The other founder, Ziv Aviram, is retiring from Mobileye to focus on another company he started, OrCam, which makes artificial-vision devices that allow the visually impaired to understand text and identify objects.

Intel announced its intention to acquire Mobileye in March. The two companies have been working with BMW on self-driving cars and are partners with Delphi Automotive, a supplier of advanced automotive electronics and software.

Big investments and outright acquisitions are increasingly prominent in the autonomous-vehicle development race. Ford Motor announced in February that it would invest $1 billion in Argo, an artificial-intelligence start-up focused on driverless cars. And last year General Motors acquired another software firm in the sector, Cruise Automation. On Tuesday, Cruise announced that it had developed a ride-hailing app for driverless cars being tested by its employees on the streets of San Francisco.

Partnerships have not always gone smoothly. The Cruise application could bring G.M. into conflict with the ride service Lyft, a strategic partner. And last year a public split arose between Mobileye and Tesla after an Ohio man was killed in Florida while driving a Tesla Model S with Autopilot engaged. Mr. Shashua said publicly that Mobileye was unhappy with the way Tesla was using its technology. Tesla has since begun equipping its cars with cameras and hardware of its own design. Intel and Mobileye aim to demonstrate the strength of their combined capabilities in the next several months by building a fleet of 100 self-driving test vehicles.

“This is our way to put the technology out so it can be demonstrated not only for automakers but for society, for regulators,” Mr. Shashua, who will become a senior vice president of Intel, said in an interview.

Continue reading… https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/technology/intel-mobileye-driverless-cars.html?emc=edit_th_20170809&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=31553297&_r=0

Driverless-car outlook shifts as Intel takes over Mobileye.

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Car-sharing in Russia is about to boom

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

At 17 million square kms, Russia is the largest country in the world. Or to put that in automotive terms: it would take two weeks to drive from one end of Russia to the other. This huge country has a huge capital, and both need a huge fleet. For the past few years, Moscow has been a laboratory for car-sharing. The experiment has proved successful and, says a study by LeasePlan Russia, the formula is spreading to the rest of Russia.

The entire automotive stock in Russia is about 42 million vehicles in private ownership, and 3.5 million in corporate fleets. Annual vehicle sales amount to 1.5 million units, mainly to the private sector. But attitudes towards ownership are shifting, and Russians are warming to car-sharing as an increasingly mainstream alternative.

Car-sharing in Russia took its first tentative steps in 2013, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. By 2015, the formula was familiar enough for Moscow city authorities to announce plans to expand the Russian capital’s car-sharing fleet to 10,000 cars. That target is still far off: the overall car-sharing fleet in the capital today totals about 3,000 cars. In the rest of Russia, car-sharing totals more than 2,700 cars. As of now, The largest companies on the Russian car-sharing market are: Delimobile, Car5, YouDrive, AnyTime and BelkaCar.

In Moscow alone, more than 300,000 customers subscribe to the various car-sharing schemes that are on offer. In the 20-month period from September 2015 to May 2017, the number of car-sharing trips undertaken by Muscovites exceeded 1.3 million. Each shared car is used by an average of eight people a day. The average car-sharing trip lasts 37 minutes.

The target customer for Russia’s car-sharing services has a distinct profile: young to middle-age (21-40 years old), metropolitan and with a preference for self-drive over taxis – the financial savings are a major factor in this. Around 90% of Russian car-share customers has one or two university degrees. Job-wise, they are mainly full-time employees, top executives or business owners. The share of blue-collar and unemployed customers of car-sharing services is minimal (5-7%).

Four factors are driving the growth of car-sharing in Russia. Firstly, a change in attitude towards car ownership, or more precisely: the cost of car ownership. Studies show the average ‘owned’ car sits idle for up to 90% of the time, which of course has implications for the effective cost of the car (when it is actually used).

Secondly, the transport situation in Russia’s big cities is critical in terms of traffic density and traffic jams, and the limited availability and high cost of parking spaces. These factors are pushing the demand for alternative mobility solutions.

Thirdly, Russia is very advanced when it comes to adopting technological innovations, which permeate virtually all aspects of everyday life in the country. Russians are very savvy when it comes to ordering items online, for example.

And finally, operational leasing has become the technical platform of choice for car-sharing companies. This allows them to concentrate on their core business, leaving fleet management to the lessors. Another big advantage is financial, i.e. being able to forgo the acquisition of the vehicles themselves. Among suppliers for car-sharing companies in Russia, LeasePlan currently is the market leader (43%).

Over the next two years, car-sharing will break out of the two big cities and become available in 15 cities with a population of more than one million, as well as in several resorts on the Black Sea.

According to projections by LeasePlan, the Russian car-sharing market outside Moscow will exceed 5,000 vehicles by the end of this year, and grow to 7,000 in 2018. By that time, the Moscow car-sharing fleet alone should number between 10,000 and 15,000 vehicles.

All operators are planning for this expansion beyond Moscow and St. Petersburg, as the awareness of the advantages and the convenience of leasing are growing among the Russian business community and the general population.

Continue reading… http://www.globalfleet.com/car_sharing_in_russia_is_about_to_boom_61169-en-509-190938-2019.html

Car-sharing in Russia is about to boom

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TLPA to unveil national marketing campaign at 99th Annual Convention & Trade Show in Denver

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

The Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association (TLPA) will host its 99^th Annual Convention & Trade Show from October 8-12 in Denver, Colorado, bringing together some of the world’s top fleet owners and industry vendors to share best business practices and to celebrate the trade group’s 100^th anniversary.

As part of this recognition of the first 100 years of industry service, TLPA President Bill Scalzi will unveil a new national marketing campaign, further positioning the for-hire transportation industry for a future in which it continues to adapt and evolve in its service to business travelers, tourists, people with disabilities and the general public. Additionally, TLPA will announce the winners of its coveted 2017 transportation awards, including the Operator and Driver of the Year awards, as well as the Outstanding Contributor to Women in Transportation.

“We are looking forward to an exciting 99^thAnnual Convention & Trade Show in Denver and will recognize the hard-working companies and individuals who have been leaders in the industry over the last year,” Scalzi said. “We’re also very excited about our new marketing campaign that reflects all that TLPA has learned in our first century of service, and how we can continue to move forward together as an industry in the next 100 years.”

The event—the largest gathering of its kind in the world—also provides an opportunity for fleet operators and mangers to hear from fellow operators, vendors and industry experts on how to take their companies to the next level of success. Over 800 transportation fleet owners and managers along with the industry’s leading vendors are expected to attend the 99^thAnnual Convention & Trade Show. More at: www.tlpa.org

TLPA presents National Marketing Campaign at 99th Annual Convention Trade Show in Denver.

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How AI, AR, and VR are making travel more convenient

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

From 50 ways to leave your lover, as the song goes, to 750 types of shampoos, we live in an endless sea of choices. And although I haven’t been in the market for hair products in a while, I understand the appeal of picking a product that’s just right for you, even if the decision-making is often agonizing. This quandary (the “Goldilocks Syndrome”, of finding the option that is “just right”) has now made its way to the travel industry, as the race is on to deliver highly personalized and contextual offers for your next flight, hotel room or car rental.

Technology, of course, is both a key driver and enabler of this brave new world of merchandising in the travel business. But this is not your garden variety relational-databases-and-object-oriented-systems tech. What is allowing airlines, hotels and other travel companies to behave more like modern-day retailers is the clever use of self-learning systems, heuristics trained by massive data sets and haptic-enabled video hardware. Machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are starting to dramatically shape the way we will seek and select our travel experiences.

Let every recommendation be right. AI is already starting to change how we search for and book travel. Recent innovation and investment has poured into front-end technologies that leverage machine learning to fine tune search results based on your explicit and implicit preferences. These range from algorithms that are constantly refining how options are ranked on your favorite travel website, to apps on your mobile phone that consider past trips, expressed sentiment (think thumbs up, likes/dislikes, reviews) and volunteered information like frequent traveler numbers.

Business travel, as well, is positioned for the application of AI techniques, even if not all advances are visible to the naked eye. You can take photos of a stack of receipts on your smartphone; optical character recognition software codifies expense amounts and currencies, while machine learning algorithms pick out nuances like categories and spending patterns. AI is also improving efficiencies in many operational systems that form the backbone of travel. Machine learning is already starting to replace a lot of rule-based probabilistic models in airport systems to optimize flight landing paths to meet noise abatement guidelines, or change gate/ramp sequencing patterns to maximize fuel efficiency.

Making decisions based on reality. VR and AR are still changing and evolving rapidly, with many consumer technology giants publicly announcing products this year we can expect to see rapid early adoption and mainstreaming of these technologies. Just as music, photos, videos and messaging became ubiquitous thanks to embedded capabilities in our phones, future AR and VR applications are likely to become commonplace.

VR offers a rich, immersive experience for travel inspiration, and it is easy to imagine destination content being developed for a VR environment. But VR can also be applied to travel search and shopping. My company, Amadeus, recently demonstrated a seamless flight booking experience that includes seat selection and payment. Virtually “walking” onto an airplane and looking a specific seat you are about to purchase makes it easier for consumers to make informed decisions, while allowing airlines to clearly differentiate their premium offerings.

Continue reading… https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/03/how-tech-is-making-travels-inconveniences-much-more-convenient/?bt_ee=/IIPkvdXdolHSpNyEV1rdMwAXiemsHfsbYH/0M3VeM1tXAdbooaDPnOTeSHLQUIN&bt_ts=1501868681613

How AI, AR, and VR are making (business) travel more convenient

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Chrysler and Kango announce first-of-its-kind Family Rideshare Service Partnership

Katie Challans 0 Comment Aug 21, 2017

The Chrysler brand and Kango, an app-based, on-demand service providing safe, reliable rides and childcare for kids from preschool to high school, today announced a new partnership that will make available new Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans for use by eligible Kango drivers. In this first-of-a-kind partnership between a family rideshare service and an automaker in the U.S., the Chrysler brand will make a fleet of new Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans available to eligible Kango drivers, for an affordable lease, to promote safety and environmental stewardship and to provide a best-in-class ride.

The California-based Kango will deploy the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid vehicles inSan Francisco beginning in fall 2017. The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans will be used by Kango’s pre-screened, trusted drivers to transport riders in the San Francisco Bay area.

“Kango is excited to partner with Chrysler to make its new Pacifica Hybrid minivans available to our eligible drivers,” said Sara Schaer, CEO of Kango. “In addition to being a green vehicle with the best mileage of any minivan, the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid will help us meet the growing demand for shared carpool rides for groups of kids going places. Drivers save money on gas. Kids are delighted with the minivan’s kid-friendly features. It’s a win for everyone.”

“Parents and children today are busier than ever and often need to be in multiple places at one time. The Chrysler brand is focused on providing transportation solutions for families to make their lives easier,” said Tim Kuniskis, Head of Passenger Car Brands – Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA – North America. “The Chrysler Pacifica is the ultimate family vehicle, and with the addition of the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, it’s now the most fuel-efficient family vehicle. Together with Kango, we will make it easier for parents to manage conflicting priorities at work with the knowledge that their kids are being transported to their activities in a safe environment.”

Kango and Chrysler brand are providing families with top of the line safety, technology, comfort, and service for the benefit and enjoyment of Kango’s regular customers. Kango’s drivers and caregivers all have previous childcare experience. They are Trustline-certified, fingerprinted, background checked, DMV record-checked and screened in person, leading Kango to win “Best Uber for Kids” in San Francisco magazine’s 2017 Best of San Franciscoawards. In addition, Kango is the only service insured to drive children of any age, providing car seats, as well as booster seats. It is also the only kids’ ridesharing service that performs both same-day and pre-scheduled rides, seven days a week, and allows families to meet a driver or sitter beforehand if desired.

The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is America’s first-ever hybrid minivan, and along with its eco-friendly electric range and best-in-class MPG, comes equipped with 100-plus safety and security features, giving parents peace of mind. In addition to safety, the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is kid-friendly, providing the largest dual touchscreens of any family car, offering built-in games and apps with the available Uconnect Theater.

The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans are also perfect for multi-family carpools – a common scenario, as Kango drivers can do multiple pickups and/or multiple drop-offs in the same ride. For example, Kango can pick up neighboring kids and bring them to school in the morning, or pick up several kids from an afterschool activity and drop them off at their respective homes.

“Overall, Kango is so excited to be working with Chrysler to delight our customers with a best-in-class ride experience, and to advance the future of safe, environmentally friendly transportation for families,” Schaer said.

Chrysler team up with Kango Family Rideshare.

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