General Motors Company [NYSE:GM] is teaming up with an unlikely partner to trial a new mobility service in San Francisco.
The 90-day trial will provide Uber drivers with the ability to lease vehicles by the week or longer at discounted rates and with no mileage limits.
It means participating Uber drivers won’t need to own a car to earn money using the popular ride-sharing service. For the trial, the vehicles will be leased from Maven, GM’s on-demand car-sharing service.
Maven
Eligible vehicles will be the Chevrolet Cruze, Malibu and Trax; they will be offered for lease from Maven for $179 per week. Insurance coverage will be included in the cost of every lease and there will be no additional fees if a driver utilizes the vehicle for personal use. Servicing will be handled by Chevy dealers.
What’s odd is that GM is running the trial with Uber instead of rival ride-sharing firm Lyft, which GM has invested $500 million in. It’s possible that once the trial ends, Uber drivers pleased with the results may end up switching to Lyft.
GM and Uber are also direct rivals in the race to launch a ride-sharing service using self-driving cars with no human driver onboard. GM and Uber are developing their own self-driving technology but both are still years or even decades away from offering a ride-sharing service with fully self-driving cars.
