Just using…
Maybe not! It seems that the shift from owning a car to just using one has already been done. Nowadays you have the possibility to use a car-sharing service. It is a flexible renting car system in which you pay just for the time you use the car, for city users (and not big travellers) it is more profitable than owning a car: no insurance costs, no maintenance costs and even in some cases no parking at all. The reference company ‘Zipcar’ has a terrible success in the United Stated.
“Zipcar is the smarter alternative to car rental or ownership. You get wheels when you want them and pay as you go (literally). With bigger savings and fewer headaches than car ownership. We even pay for gas and insurance. Try asking for that at the car rental counter.”And even in Madrid you can find a car-sharing service; it is called ‘Respiro’, it started in december 2009.
And imagine that Repisro already has a client that has sold his car because the carsharing service offers him all he needs and is less expensive!
I used this service once and it is so good: it is like if it was your own car! It is a smooth, easy and flexible solution (I must confess that I have one car parked one minute walk from my house… very easy).
This service was made possible thanks to technology (just to remind that technology has quite an important weight within service innovation): internet booking, RF Smart Cards and some devices inside the car that works as a central database to count your consumption…
If you’re interested: a detailed guide explaining how to bring carsharing in your community (with business plan and all kind of advices).
A new concept of car…
Thinking about car design usually means more thinking about styling or industrial design. It is quite rare to find real breakthrough concepts of cars. But there are some exceptions. Here is one of my favourite concept car: the Osmose, by Citroën.
And it is not that new. In 2001, Citroën revealed at the Paris Motor Show a concept car that goes beyond just a car, it is a solution for pedestrian mobility associated to a practical city-car… The Osmose.
The idea is based on an innovative product: the Osmose car, a car able to change its trunk into an open 2 persons seat at the back of the car (a sort of outside seat like in old buses).
“Reconciling diverging interests, Osmose sets up a two-way exchange between pedestrians and motorists. In this way, mobility is shared by people who in theory have nothing in common apart from the fact that they happen to be going in the same direction. A natural and fair exchange that respects individual privacy.” (Find here more details about Osmose)
Its storyboard (simplified) could be the following
Even if this idea might be quite idealistic and it needs to be more developed to answer communication, security, usability, legal and more aspects, still it is nice to find the seed of an innovation that really deals with the "concept of car" and "mobility" and goes further than shape, style and fashion. I think it can be inspiring…
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