If you live in Hawaii, like the idea of Zipcar, and find it annoying that many of the available cars aren’t Toyotas, we have great news. Toyota has decided to launch a car sharing service of its own, exclusively in Hawaii.
Toyota announced today that it has partnered with Servco, Toyota’s distributor in Hawaii, to develop the necessary technology. And while it’s currently still testing that technology on employees, Servco will officially launch the Honolulu-based service by the end of the year. When the app is released, Toyota says it will identify and authenticate users, use their phones to lock and unlock the cars, manage payments, and support fleet management for the new car sharing business.
“This new application demonstrates the power of combining Toyota’s unrivaled global manufacturing and technology capacity with dealers’ extensive local operations to provide consumers with more convenient options to move,” said Shigeki Tomoyama, Toyota’s president of Connected Company, definitely not sounding anything like Emperor Palpatine.
And if Zack Hicks, CEO of Toyota Connected North America, is to be believed, this app is an important part of Toyota’s future. “This successful launch of [Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform] represents the next generation in car sharing platforms and is Toyota’s global foundation for fleet management, car sharing, and the future of mobility,” said Hicks.
Earlier this year, Toyota also began working with a company called Getaround to test a car sharing program that’s accessible to people who live in the continental United States. Assuming the San Francisco-based pilot goes well, Toyota says it plans to work with other dealers and distributors to expand to other markets.
Source: Toyota
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