BMW Takes On ZipCar With A MUCH Better Service

BMW

BMW just launched a service called DriveNow in its hometown of Munich, which is basically like ZipCar, but much better.

Here are some of the plusses:

The biggest thing is that you can pick up and leave your car anywhere, instead of at a designated garage. Instead, you pull up an iPhone app that tells you where the nearest available car is, and once you’re done you can leave your car parked wherever.
They add a chip right on your driving license that lets you unlock the car. That way, you don’t have an extra card to carry around and worry about.
Not only is fuel included, but parking is free within city limits. (It helps being a huge company in your hometown.)

Right now the service is only available in Munich, with an initial fleet of 300 BMWs and Mini Coopers (BMW owns Mini), but there’s no reason to think if this experiment isn’t successful, BMW won’t roll it out elsewhere.

Here’s a video explaining how it works: