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Uber's EV ride service comes to 1,400 more North American cities
Uber is greatly expanding Uber Green to 1,400 new North American cities and towns, including Calgary, New York City, Miami and Houston.
Avis makes it easier to find a parking spot for your car rental
Driving in an unfamiliar city can be stressful, and finding parking is even worse. Eventually, we'll have autonomous vehicles to deal with that for us, but until then, companies are looking at ways to ease the strain. That's why car rental brand Avis has partnered with mobility solutions company Arrive to add a space-finding feature to its app. The Avis app already lets drivers rent a car on the go, and includes a bunch of other helpful features such as remote car locking -- with Arrive integration customers in the US can now instantly find, book and pre-pay for parking. Arrive is already used in some 230 cities around Canada and the US, predominantly by third-party and business customers. Encouraging consumer use makes sense, especially as many city-dwellers don't drive a car on a daily basis -- knowing parking is already taken car of is just one less thing to worry about when you're behind the wheel.
Lyft offers Avis rentals to drivers who don't own cars
Lyft drivers now have another major choice if they want to offer rides without buying their own cars. The ridesharing service has struck a deal that will have the Avis Budget Group offer "thousands" of vehicles through Lyft's Express Drive program in North America. There's no mention of the rates or terms of the deal, but the aim remains to make Lyft work feasible without the "cost and burden" of ownership. The cars should become available through the Lyft app in the next few months.
Waymo partners with Walmart for grocery pick-up in Phoenix
Walmart's latest move into tech is a partnership with Waymo. In Phoenix later this week, the pair will begin a pilot program where customers can order groceries on the retailer's website, get a ride to and from the store in a Waymo car and then snag a discount on their groceries. More than that, Waymo is teaming up with Avis Budget Group to pick up and drop off customers when they need a rental car.
Get Amazon gift cards just for renting a car from Avis
Avis just found a way to sweeten the deal for frequent travelers: give them breaks on their internet shopping. The firm now gives US car renters an Amazon gift card worth 10 percent of their rental price just for being an Amazon customer -- no, you don't even need Prime. The gift card doubles to 20 percent of the rental price if you book your vehicle through Avis' Alexa skill. If you're the jetsetting sort who needs rental cars on a regular basis, this could easily lead to a few Amazon freebies.
Avis is testing a system that unlocks a rental car with your phone
Avis announced today that it has teamed up with Continental to bring keyless car rental to its customers, Roadshow reports. As part of a pilot program taking place in Kansas City, the company has equipped some of its cars with Continental's Key-as-a-Service technology, which allows users to lock, unlock and start their rentals with just a smartphone and the Avis app.
Avis Now lets you pick your rental car from your phone
To keep up with with the growing proliferation of car sharing services (and their own sister company Zipcar), Avis will now let you pick your ride, extend your rental or just breeze through the car pick up process right from your phone. The updates are all part of the new Avis Now features, which launched today at 50 locations across the US and will expand to select international markets in the near future. To take advantage of Avis Now, drivers have to be enrolled in the free Avis Preferred loyalty program and have the Avis app installed on their iOS or Android device. From there, users can book a car, view real-time availability and even switch cars in the lot if they spot something they'd rather be driving. Like other car sharing services, the app lets you flash the lights, lock or unlock the doors and return the car without the need for human interaction. (Added bonus: you can leave those bulky rental car keys in the car during your vacation and unlock your car with TouchID.) On a more mundane note, the app also lets drivers check their mileage, fuel and rental agreement. It's all here in Avis's slick new commercial:
Hands-on with Avis' upgraded Where2 GPS
Avis is showing off its new Where2 portable nav unit this week, a customized Garmin Nuvi 780 that will replace the StreetPilot-based units currently in Avis' arsenal. The software has been mildly reworked to offer routing to Avis rental return locations and the like, but we think the best part of the customization is the bezel. Come on, tell us that red isn't way better than Garmin's own gray? Look for the new units to be available -- by rental only, of course -- in March.%Gallery-13176%
Avis rolls out in-car WiFi service
Avis announced today that it's begun the roll-out of its Autonet Mobile-based in-car WiFi service, now officially dubbed Avis Connect, with those paying a visit to the San Francisco International Airport able to drive off the lot with the added distraction starting today. They'll have to pay a somewhat hefty $10.95 a day (for unlimited usage) on top of the normal rental fee for the service, however, which makes use of either an EV-DO or HSDPA network (Avis isn't specifying exactly which carrier its using). San Jose, Los Angeles, and Newark, N.J. are apparently next in line, set to get the service in the coming weeks, with Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, New York, San Diego and Seattle on tap for the third quarter of this year. No word if you'll get a discount if you opt for both the in-car WiFi and the built-in DirecTV.[Via Physorg/AP]
