With car sharing continuing to be the rage, General Motors wants a bigger slice of the ride.
Continuing its efforts in the space, GM announced Thursday (October 1) that it will be expanding its initiative with two new car-sharing programs, including one in New York City. Although details are sill being worked out, the second program will launch in another prominent city in the United States during the first quarter of 2016. Maybe it should be Los Angeles? Nothing would make a bigger car-sharing splash than programs in NYC and LA.
"Our goal is to disrupt ourselves, and own the customer relationship beyond the car," GM co chief executive Mary Barra told Reuters earlier in the week.
The thinking behind GM's plans might be as simple as to rather join a growing movement, which doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon, instead of letting other car-sharing programs beat it to the punch. That and perhaps there's an opportunity for GM to collaborate with tech giants like Apple, Google and Uber, who are all in the car space now.
"We're always looking for the right kind of partnerships and there are always great opportunities to collaborate with those partners," Mark Reuss, GM's executive VP of global product development, told The Verge.
While a possible collaboration could be in order at some point, GM is doing its part to make sure its well connected until then.
"We sold more 4G LTE connected vehicles in three days in June than the rest of the industry did in the first half of the year," Phil Abram, GM's executive director for connectivity, told Reuters.
