This makes sense. Many who shun other modes of alternative transportation have no problem with borrowing their friends cars. Especially if it's a valid situation, such as borrowing a pickup truck for hauling a gigantic load of whatever.

However, not do many people see their personally-owned vehicles as a status symbol (as mentioned in the Streetsblog article), but also as a symbol of "it's mine, you can't have it;" especially those who purposely buy very expensive autos for the main reason of showing off to the rest of the general public just how much money they had to spend on a vehicle. Add this into the increased rate of personal consumption of all goods and services used to prop up the economy, and the vehicle manufacturers as well as oil companies and vehicle service businesses will probably try to put this on the backburner for a very long time. (Which is all the reason for individuals to promote it.)

Oooh! This is an exciting idea, however I don't think that it would work out well without a lot of regulations on the system.

The main problems are safety and liability.

Safety: When I rent a car from Hertz, etc. I have a reasonable expectation that the company has properly maintained the car and that it is a safe vehicle to operate. By "safe" I mean that the particular car I am driving has no defects (not the model, but the individual car, if that makes sense).

Liability: This ties right into safety. I know that everyone claims that America is too litigious, but one nice thing about litigious societies is that it keeps people and companies on their toes. Hertz management knows that if Hertz rents me an unsafe vehicle and the vehicle causes me harm, I can sue the pants off Hertz. Therefore, Hertz (hopefully) ensures that their cars are safe.

In addition, if I let someone use my car and that person gets in an accident, I am probably liable for any damage or injury caused in the accident. The only way I would participate

Another liability factor: If someone uses my car and uses it to commit a crime, there's a good chance that I might lose my car or at least be subject to substantial penalties. The worst case is that I could be charged as an accessory to the crime (not saying I'd be convicted, but at least charged). Also, if someone uses my car to go buy drugs and then drops an illegal drug under the floor mat and I get pulled over down the road and my car is searched, I will be charged with possession of an illegal drug.

The idea seems nice, but there are way too many problems that could come up with it, barring a lot of indemnification against the owner. And if the owner is indemnified, then I'm nervous about using the owner's car since the owner wouldn't be worried about if the car is properly maintained.

Maybe all rentals would be "as is" like when selling a used car. That could solve some of the problems.

I guess that Spride is doing it, but it still seems like it could be risky to me.