GM Joins Sharing Economy

July 23, 2012

General Motors announced that its OnStar subscribers can now rent out their idle vehicles through the RelayRides car sharing service, which is the first third-party developer to integrate with GM OnStar’s proprietary application program interface (API).

OnStar is available in Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac models.

GM said owners of OnStar-enabled GM vehicles will not have to install aftermarket hardware or meet a renter to hand off keys as is the situation with some car sharing services. Renters can unlock reserved OnStar-enabled cars by using their smart phones.

Relay Rides provides all vehicle owners with a $1 million insurance policy for owners for the duration of the rental and a $300,000 policy for renters.

RelayRides says participants can earn “hundreds of dollars per month” from their idle vehicles.

RelayRides pioneered peer-to-peer car sharing when it launched in Boston in June 2010. RelayRides has gone national and raised $13 million in venture capital funding from Google Ventures, August Capital, Shasta Ventures and General Motors Ventures.

GM also said it will make the API available to other developers later this summer.

Was this article valuable?

Here are more articles you may enjoy.

From This Issue

Insurance Journal Magazine July 23, 2012
July 23, 2012
Insurance Journal Magazine

Excess, Surplus & Specialty Markets Directory Vol. II