Waymo partners with car rental giant Avis to provide self-driving cars as a service

According to Reuters, Alphabet's self-driving company Waymo announced on Monday that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Avis Budget Group, a car rental company, and the two companies plan to expand their self-driving business. The cooperation also caused Avis Budget's stock to rise rapidly.

The market share of traditional car rental companies such as Avis and Hertz Global Holdings has been suppressed by emerging technology companies such as Lyft and Uber. The cooperation between Waymo and Avis also enables car rental companies to share a share in the future era of autonomous driving. Avis may be responsible for providing services for autonomous vehicles that are not in operation in the future, including changing tires, cleaning interiors, and testing car safety.

Bloomberg reported on Monday that Apple is currently using cars provided by Avis rival Hertz Global to test its self-driving technology, a move that also caused Hertz Global's stock price to rise.

Also on Monday, Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens told analysts that major automakers are thinking a lot about how to manage self-driving fleets. GM has a large dealer network that can provide self-driving fleet management services, and its partnership with Lyft and its Maven car-sharing business can also be responsible for the management of self-driving fleets.

Waymo said that the cooperation with Avis is mainly in Phoenix. Waymo will provide free Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivan rides to passengers in Phoenix, and Waymo plans to add 600 Chrysler Pacifica. Neither Waymo nor Avis disclosed whether the autonomous driving fleet will be extended to other cities, but Waymo head John Krafcik said in his speech that Avis has thousands of locations around the world, which can help Waymo bring autonomous driving technology to more audiences and promote the technology to more places.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.