On a rainy morning in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a college student walked into a public downtown parking garage and up to a car. He pressed a few buttons on his smartphone. A few moments later, the lights flashed on the Chevrolet Spark in front of him and its doors unlocked. He got in and drove away.
?Not bad,? said a man standing to the side, observing this interaction among person, smartphone, and vehicle. ?That was 10 to 15 seconds, which is a nice start. What we want is one second?bam?they come up to the car with bags in both hands, and they?re in. Less than a second, that would be awesome.?
Bob Tiderington spends an inordinate amount of time in parking garages like this one to gauge the customer experience. Officially, he?s the senior manager of vehicle-sharing operations for Maven, the car-sharing service launched by General Motors earlier this year. Unofficially, he?s a jack-of-all-trades, doing everything from cleaning cars to registering vehicles with state DMVs to evaluating metrics like how long it takes customers to unlock their cars via a Bluetooth-enabled connection. He?s been busy. Since starting here in Ann Arbor in January, Maven has expanded to nine U.S. markets, including New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Chicago. Maven recently added Los Angeles to its operations. L.A. is ?a natural fit for Maven because of the city?s incredible appetite for cars,? said Julia Steyn, vice president of urban mobility and Maven for General Motors. More citi...