BMW’s ReachNow Enters Ride-Hailing Arena To Compete With Uber & Lyft
German luxury car manufacturer BMW has long been known for creating sporty, finely engineered, and refined vehicles for personal use, but now, it appears that the auto manufacturing giant is attempting to take a step into a market entirely unoccupied by auto manufacturers themselves.
With the ReachNow program, the corporation is taking on well-known ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft, offering their vehicles up for personal rental, but also in a higher-end capacity with more expensive cars and a personal driver, akin to Uber Black.
The corporation has hundreds of vehicles spanning from their normal BMW line-up to “i” sub-brand electric vehicles and even Mini Coopers available for public rental and usage. As reported by Wired, starting today, ride hailing will be available for the first time within the app in Seattle.
Through their unique take on the system, combining offerings of many other different ride-hailing services, you could rent out a vehicle for yourself to drive around and use, hail a driver to take you where you need to go, or even pre-schedule a car and driver to be available for you up to seven days in advance.
“We truly believe in owning the IP and understanding the data and analytics,” says Simon Broesamle, ReachNow’s chief customer officer, explaining why BMW built its own ride-hailing service instead of partnering with an existing company. He explained to Wired that the service should provide valuable insight into when people want to rent cars and when they want to rent drivers.
“The earlier we know about it, the earlier we can inform people who are working these products in the long-term,” Broesamle says. Deciphering this information is key in providing information for BMW leading even into the next century, where they predict that urban car ownership will not be a priority at all and services such as their own will become the leading source of transportation in densely populated areas.
Although so far the beta testing of the ReachNow app has received average reviews at best, the company continues to hope to streamline their service and make it completely unique. Since the ReachNow service largely occupies the same arena as Uber Black (including it’s pricing, which is a Black-competitive $2.40 per mile plus 40 cents per minute.
Of course, entering this competitive market means that BMW will have to dedicate a considerable amount of time and energy into re-vamping and maintaining this new experiment in mobility if they wish to compete with companies such as Uber and Lyft who dedicate all of their efforts to it. Despite this, the company is looking to expand its efforts beyond one city and analyze the mobility needs of individuals in other major metropolitan areas so that their services may be implemented there as well.
