Cars as Spaces

When we think of cars (or car sharing services or autonomous vehicles for that matter) we tend to think of people going from one place to another. Well hold your horsepower, this doesn’t seem to be quite the case, not in Japan at least.

Japanese car-sharing service Orix recently found that many of its customers were renting its cars but not driving them. Having reviewed mileage records it learned that a certain number of its cars were being returned after having “traveled no distance.” Times24, another automobile-sharing service in Japan with more than one million registered users, reported the same thing. So what were people doing with these cars?

Turns out one one user rented vehicles to have a nap. Another stored bags and other personal belongings when nearby coin lockers were full. Some used cars to charge phones, others as somewhere to have lunch. Other reasons included; working, watching TV, changing clothes and singing. (I know what all you people out there are thinking and I’m sure that happens as well, especally at night).

Source: Asahi Shimbun via The Edge and Alan. (thanks Alan)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *