GM’s car-sharing service Maven lands in San Francisco

There’s a new option to getting around the streets of San Francisco. GM has announced the immediate availability of its car-sharing platform Maven in the City by the Bay. The automaker — which has a substantial $500 million investment in Lyft — will continue to expand the service to other metropolitan areas as it dives deeper into alternatives to individual vehicle ownership.

As expected the service only rents GM vehicles. From the Chevy Volt hybrid EV to the gigantic Escalade. Prices start at $8 an hour for cars and $14 an hour for SUVs. In all, 60 cars will be available at 30 sites throughout the city with a focus on the Financial District, SOMA, Embarcadero and Mission District.

In addition to San Francisco, Maven is currently available in Ann Arbor, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington DC and New York City.

Like ZipCar, City CarShare and Enterprise CarShare, the vehicles must be rented and returned to same site. San Francisco doesn’t allow car-share full-size vehicles to be picked up and dropped off on the street. So don’t expect a Car2Go or ReachNow type service anytime soon from the automaker or any other company. Although the company does say it’s investigating that feature.

What Maven does have going for it that other car-share services are sometimes lacking is that post-signup, the acceptance process is relatively quick. “Usually within a few hours,” according to Jeff Shields, West Coast regional director of Maven. Although, it could take up to 48 hours.

But once you are a full fledged member, members use their smartphone as their key ass opposed to the NFC cards used by ZipCar and Enterprise CarShare. Couple that with the built-in OnStar feature that can help members find a destination and even extend the length of a reservation Shields boasts that it’s a “seamless experience.”

Source: Maven