In Japan, a growing number of car-sharing users don’t rent cars for driving
asahi.com
asahi.com
We suspected his claims of it being a comfortable place to get work done didn't fit with renting it from say midnight to 5 but upon an "investigation" we saw books and papers on the dash, the dome lights on, you know, deep study.
Still think it's kinda strange... He was middle aged and married. My theory was he had a snoring wife at home and was taking night school or something.
There was another gentleman who would book the cars at night and also go nowhere for hours. Upon investigating him he was listening to fiction books on tape... Relaxing with the seat back and enjoying the novel. Rented around the same time almost every evening.
We need those in adult versions!
[0]: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/uRIAAOSwBwBZje5O/s-l300.jpg
And I have gone to my car to study before. It works! Not everyone can have a home office.
I was lucky to have the opportunity to move into a 4Mx5M bedroom with room for a large desk, office chair, and couch, and it helps immensely.
The mind is powerful.
> Upon investigating him
Hella creepy. Glad you gave the business your all and learned valuable lessons.
If someone constantly rented the car at night, didn't drive it, and was dodgy whenever they came to a lot, I guess you could say it's none of our business except that it's a $10,000 insurance liability along with a branding issue if someone is say doing hard drugs in our cars while people are walking by.
These quite rare investigations only happened after finding things. Sometimes cars would be out for 10+ rentals before arriving back for a cleaning. The frequent night renters would be on the previous renter lists multiple times after finding things so it was more to clear their name from suspicion than anything.
Honestly I don't really have a judgment on someone say, freebasing meth, that's their freedom. Just please not in our cars.
Also, addiction, and addiction, more than anything, is related to trauma.
If that were all they were doing, and staying inside, that'd be one thing - but it generally ends up going far beyond this, at least here in the United States.
Such people through those actions, of using major hard drugs, are generally at a point where they don't care what happens to them, or their bodies. They then eventually go out in the public; when they aren't bothering anybody, their antics can be entertaining at best, and downright tragic at worst.
When they do go to bother somebody - and they will, and do - they generally won't leave you alone. In some situations, they can get extremely violent. Also, regardless of whether they are violent or not, depending on their level of usage and other factors, they may literally look - and sometimes are - "the walking dead". Coughing, spitting, seeping and oozing open sores - this and more can be found among these poor souls. One hopes they can find help, but more often than not they refuse it when offered (some will even claim to be healthy and sound, despite the reality).
Eventually some turn to random violence or other crime, quite often breaking and entering locked vehicles and homes, stealing whatever isn't nailed down (and quite often stuff that seemingly is - not even rooftop mounted air conditioning units are safe).
I'm normally all for "freedom of choice" - that one's body is sacrosanct and should be up to the owner what can and should be done with it. But some of these drugs have shown that, when abused, they can lead to worse outcomes for the public at large. Part of it does have to do with the illegality of the drug, and it's availability. Maybe if such drugs were legal and free, and shelters or other places available to use of the drugs (with appropriate medical or other staff to ensure abuse doesn't occur, or that people can get help or treatment as needed or desired) - such outcomes would be different or non-existent.
As it is here in the United States, though, at a certain point users of these drugs become a problem for society and its safety at large; they should have freedom - but not the kind of freedom that allows harm to others.
But the car rental company to use GPS tracking to come make sure you are using the car in a way that they approve of, while you are paying them? Very creepy.
It also doesn't sound like it would have mattered if these people WERE parked up on their own driveway..
We had a program that allowed them to end the ride on their driveway so long as it was open for the public to do the same.
We had hundreds of people opt in in the first week. Turned out to be a very popular program
I'm sure you don't mean it like that, but fyi, "gypsy" is considered a racial slur.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_taxicab_operation#cite...
They're Romany Gypsies? Sure this usage may be offensive, but certain usages of Jew are probably offensive.
Further, I assume pink gypsy potatoes and gypsy moth planes aren't racial slurs?
Shortening the name to(I wont repeat it) is a slur and possibly a slur depandant on how its used similar to the shortening of Pakistani is a slur but the full name isn't.
For example:
> listening to fiction books
Was this also a relevant part of the "privacy invasion to prevent abuse", to determine the genre of the book?
That time we were looking for what was eventually a big fluffy not house trained dog that led to chronic professional cleaning costs.
Having big fluffy dogs taking liberties on our upholstery was something we couldn't afford to constantly clean and we had a no (shedding) pets policy and it's certainly not fair to do some blanket ban on a bunch of users because we couldn't find the actual dog.
Recently, I was in Barcelona and was surprised to see a bunch of teenagers cramped together sitting on the pavement in a shopping mall. At first, as an old person that I am, I thought that they were up to something. But, they were having fun, laughing and having a good time. The only park had no trees and few banks anyway. So, it was better to sit on the floor somewhere in the shadow that to sit on the floor under the sun.
Even more interesting was the fact that the place had a lot of empty chairs. But, those ones were for paying customers.
If it is so hard to find a place to sit with friends much more difficult is to find a place where to sit alone. Some libraries are ditching the focus on books to just offer a space to study together or alone.
If I have criticised USA cities for being designed for cars European (and Japanese also) cities are designed for businesses.
Stockholm is one of the few cities where I have seen a focus on parks and outdoor pastimes. Ironically, it is only available two or three months a year as usually is too cold to be confortably sitting outsite.
There are lots of European cities with lots of parks, like Warsaw, Budapest, Prague.
This isn’t a widespread trend where public space is so limited one needs to rent a car to sit in.
The napping explanation is probably the most common. It’s normal to see people napping in vehicles at midday, especially delivery drivers and construction workers. I can see the appeal of hopping in a nearby car-share car to nap as it would be more comfortable than the seating one can normally find.
Sometimes I break up my work day by going to Starbucks and working there, but if I can't find a seat, I can just bring my drink back to my car. It's not ideal--there's no table--but it's not bad.
What's wrong with purchasing an AC at home?
I imagine maintaining a lower temperature in a house needs a lot more energy compared to a car, unless maybe you have a tiny well-isolated apartment.
But I'd also restrict it as a landlord. An improperly installed window unit can easily lead to water damage through improper sealing or installation, can stress the window frame if it isn't braced appropriately, and be a major falling hazard if installed on upper floors.
Not that it takes advanced skills to avoid most of those potential problems. But there's a reason many apartment complexes nowadays deadbolt utility closets and require maintenance calls for something as mundane as periodically changing out air filters[2]. Making any presumption about the sensibility and competencies of your tenants is a recipe for costly disasters.
[1] https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-the-difference-...
[2] For those less familiar with HVAC units, there are one or more air intakes somewhere in the house. Inside the air intake is a filter that traps dust and other particulates so they don't recirculate through the house. These filters get clogged up over time and need changed out every 1-3 months.
I have a hard time believing there's any place in America where there's houses in HOAs which don't have air conditioning. Sure, there's houses without A/C in America, but they're always very old houses that predate the invention of the HOA, and usually also the invention of the subdivision. If your house already has HVAC, then this discussion is moot since you'd have little reason to install a window unit.
During the first half of my life, very few people in my country (Italy) had AC in their homes. It wasn't until the recent high temperatures, which only became obvious 20 years ago or such, that everybody started installing them.
I can't find a historic chart specific to my country, but I suppose it wouldn't be too dissimilar from this:
https://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/news/2017...
I don't think car parking gets a rent subsidy in Japan. They don't have the US-style zoning with required parking spots per square meter, and when you buy a car you have to prove you have a monthly parking spot (which can be quite expensive due to the land cost)
> Where else can you hire private space in the centre of a city on an hourly basis for the rates that car sharing companies charge
As the article mentions in passing, cybercafes/manga cafes cost around the same as car parking, and you get a private booth, WiFi, sometimes free soft drinks etc. Some have showers and other facilities. http://www.live-matsuya.co.jp/anchor/images/anchor_01.jpg
There must be a subsidy here, because these cars are being driven elsewhere (low mileage != no mileage), and the comparison of the car rental cost as being similar to that of the cybercafe implies there is no additional cost of parking. So the parking is free, but it's quite valuable, as demonstrated by their exploitation of it; hence, there's subsidies here somewhere.
Anyway, I just looked up some actual prices for central Tokyo:
* Parking, 1 hour: 900 yen
* Car sharing, 1 hour: 900-1,800 yen (depending on car class)
* Cybercafe, 1 hour: 550 yen
So sitting in a car actually costs twice as much as a cybercafe
This the parking space does not carry a marginal cost for the operator. Rather the problem with not driving is the lost marginal charge for milage.
Tokyo also has anti idling policies. Thus these car rental services will not want to be associated with such an illegal activity.
Tokyo you "must" have an assigned parking space - but in other areas, this is not a requirement. Right next door in Chiba-shi and Saitama there is no requirement to provide proof of parking space.
Anti-idling is also 50/50.
From personal experience I can assure you Saitama requires a registered parking space, I registered it myself. The dealer would not release the car to us until we could prove the registration.
Bonus points for electrochromic glass for privacy. The glass can only be activated when the car is fully stopped with the handbrake engaged.
Uses: sleep, sex, rest, air-conditioned space, heated space, eating space, electrical outlet for phone or laptop, quiet room, change room...oh and a car. Basically anything a hotel can be but also portable.
Add automated driving to the equation and who knows what kind of a beast the industry will be in a decade.
A lot of owner-operator truckers have discrete electricity generators, because running the engine just for HVAC and electric power causes unnecessary maintenance costs. There are even truck stops that pipe in electricity, HVAC, and video channels through an umbilical that hangs down to one of the windows.
A miniaturized RV that is basically a stripped-down mobile motel room will also have a decent post-fleet-vehicle secondary market, as people buy them to live in full-time, or use more like a traditional RV, excepting that it can fit into a van-sized parking space.
Also, I'd just use blackout curtains or aluminum shutters instead of the electrochromic glass, and use a removable or retractable privacy barrier between the driver compartment and the private space. I'd rather use simple and reliable tech for simple requirements.
You're basically describing what used to be called (here in the United States - circa 1970s-80s) a "conversion van". Today, you'd probably use something like one of the larger/tall "Ford Transit Connect" vans; which I wouldn't doubt that some company does conversions on, for sale as mini RVs.
http://www.freespiritautos.co.uk/camper-conversions/nissan-e...
Although looking at the numbers, it's a whack bigger than a Transit Connect - 20 cm longer than the long wheelbase version, and weighs half a tonne more.
Mind you, the classic VW bus is about the same length and weight as the short wheelbase Transit Connect!
I would definitely consider using something like this! AirBnB and hotels cost much too much when I just want a few hours of sleep before driving home. Not to mention sometimes I finish early in the morning and getting something to sleep in during the day only is usually not possible.
On top of that sometimes I work a shift, then have a few hour gap before another shift. I am in a city an hour or two away from home so going home is not an option. Being able to have a private space I could just rest in or watch a movie would be incredibly nice.
We need private pod systems around cities. Unfortunately I could see them being abused.
I've struggled with similar issues before - when travelling, or out in a city, where to do some quiet work, or take a call, or speak to a group of colleagues?
I've explored short-term (i.e. hourly) office space rentals, but IME the low headline rates ("from...") become a lot higher when you dig into the specifics and have minimum spends. I'd happily pay $<=20-30 for a convenient small quiet office for an hour, but not $80+. I've also never found a service that offers anything like the low friction that (from the article) unlocking a car remotely would offer.
I wonder if this area is ready for some disruption...?
I suppose the next phase would be electric self-driving vehicles, circulating endlessly on the roads while the occupants sleep or study. That would probably force the city to implement tiered congestion pricing to force them out.
Building based businesses serve the baseline demand, and mobile businesses serve the surging and peaking demand. They are in competition, but neither can capture 100% of the other's market share, because they are not perfect substitutes for each other.
While IMO they could just as well divide the place up into smaller offices. Probably cost prohibitive though. As in cost for the end user, not for the co-working space.
I could sit in relative peace and solitude while I get my work done.
"Coffee and Cowork Space"
"Tea and Teamwork Space"
More seriously, companies like Spacious are doing what you're describing. Much cheaper than WeWork. You work out of an off-hours restaurant, but it's a designated quiet/work zone and they have free coffee. I'm not affiliated, and I actually didn't enjoy it, but it might interest you.
See https://ninehours.co.jp/kamata for example.
In theory you can make a phone call anywhere nowadays, but often you want privacy to discuss something sensitive or a quiet background for professionalism's sake.
I'd love to see businesses have phone booths you could rent by the minute, although I don't know how viable that would be as a use of space in a major city.
Before I go anywhere, is every little scratch and dent listed in the little handbook?
If I clip something in a carpark (like a bollard or tall curb) I've got to spend 30 minutes on the phone explaining it to the person on the other end then pay some hard to determine fee.
On my way back to the spot if I get caught in traffic there is another fine for being late.
That's before we get into the difficulty of how you'd do it with a small child with a pram and car seat etc.
I guess maybe the counter argument for this (other than rental companies fighting it because I’m sure they shadily draw in some revenue from gauging people on fees for cosmetic damage) is it might be harder to catch functional damage if you stop checking for cosmetic damage. Though, I’m not so sure that’s true.
Here you go https://www.rentawreck.com/
Their insurance is quite generous too, at first the deductible were 300$, they did increase it to 600$ but for 50$ a year you can remove it altogether. If you don't lower it, they charge 1$ more per trip, so in my case, I pay 50$ a year and there's no risk of fees.
Their insurance is quite generous too, at first the deductible were 300$, they did increase it to 600$ but for 50$ a year you can remove it altogether. If you don't lower it, they charge 1$ more per trip, so in my case, I pay 50$ a year and there's no risk of fees.
On my way back I always check and make sure I have a good buffer and increase the reservation if needed.
They do have cars with child seats too.
Never underestimate the value of a comfy seat.
At some point my dad said he's sad we didn't keep the drivers seat as well.
Essentially all these seats go for scrap so you could get the leather seats from a 7-series BMW to have a mega cool sofa at home complete with arm rest and cup-holders. With a few more bits of wood you could make some outer arm-rests. Heated/cooled seats could be nice too.
Maybe there is a 1990's sweet spot where the electronics aren't present so adjustment can be done with mechanical controls, as per your Astra option. A Transit Van could have particularly good pickings with the right vintage.
Nah, I haven't watched any Top Gear. But the seat was just always so comfy in a way none of the seats in the never cars I've been in was. I think it is due to how the seat envelopes you, in a way reminiscent of race cars (which the Astra was not, by any stretch of imagination).
I think heated seats could be possible as well, I assume the required electronics and the protocols they speak for regulation should be rather simple. But given the seat is at home there is not that much need to heat it up :)
There was a company that sold a frame for doing just that, but they went out of business. Fortunately, you can still easily get all the attachment points/latches and such, and welding up some simple legs and whatnot isn't that hard.
I was recently chair shopping, and thought the same - tried one of those gaming chairs, and it was terrible. Maybe it was the demo model, I dunno - but I couldn't see sitting in it for hours.
An actual racing seat for a car, though - those can be really comfortable. The closest I own is the set of Recaro's in my Isuzu VehiCROSS (they came standard with the vehicle); even as old as they are, they are super nice for driving. I could see using one for an office seat.
Maybe I should look into a cheaper racing seat (I could not afford an actual Recaro seat) for my next office chair? Maybe something from Jegs would work...hmm.
This quote struck me as strange since the price of gas is included in Times Car Share which is the biggest car share service.
There are various "packs" for example a 6 hour pack, 12 hour pack etc. The 6 hour pack means you don't get charged anything extra for fuel/kilometer. The other packs do charge you a fixed rate per kilometer.
There are also special packs at nighttime. The app doesn't really help you pick the best one for you or minimise your price.
Here's an example:
Book a car from 5.45 to 11.30. You're 15 minutes short of the 6 hour pack so you pay the basic time rate.
Now change the booking to 5.45 to 11.45. You now pay the 6 hour rate (4000 yen iirc).
Move the booking to 6 to midnight. Now you pay 2000 yen because it's night-time.
Overall I love the car sharing experience, it sure as hell beats paying 20,000 yen a month for a car parking space. I just wish they made this a bit clearer/easier to use.
Of course, you get a real bed with a love hotel, so it might be worth the extra if all you want to do is sleep, though the walls aren't super soundproof.
The future of rooms is they will be more like cars than rooms.
Someone figured out they could open up an entirely new market by slapping wheels on tiny homes and calling them vehicles, even if no one would ever intend to move them anywhere.
The whole thing is predatory, but it's an interesting case study in perverse incentives.
Can someone explain this one to me? Is this a weird translation or do people in Japan actually do this?
It's this kind of thing. It's literally a facial massage, not a translation issue.
I asked for the loaner vehicle for this purpose specifically. The car has AC and privacy. I get it. I wish it also had a desk.
Porto-Office?
It wouldn't have to be much larger, though it would probably need some kind of small A/C system, like you'd find on top of an RV. Put a bunch of batteries and/or a small genset under the seat area, a dropdown table on the door, a plug for power, and maybe optional 4/5G wifi. Add a credit card reader on the outside to take payment. Put a bunch on trailers and drop them off in places...
There's gotta be a reason why this hasn't been done already - none of the tech needed is that special, most of it is already "off the shelf". There must be some kind of laws or regulations preventing it?
Most of the cities in Japan are enough safe for adults to walk outside even at midnight, and there are konbinis for clothing and food. So going to a gym (for shower) + renting a car (for sleep) can be more reasonable than staying at a hotel, and maybe you will have a priceless experience when figuring out how to survive in a center of the city.
In reality, on the other hand, as this article says, the shared-car is a built-in system among the working poor. Laborers in Japan work too long, and their commute takes too long so the car is a savior to maximize their sleep time.
I have my own apartment without mortgage but I am still considering buying some van, parking it in front of my residential building and using it as extremely cheap and easily accessible storage space. heck according laws car doesn't even need to have license plate, it just need to look like it's drive worthy, so not even yearly insurance fee
If you're going to go that route, look into a used moving truck; much more space, easier to modify for storage (or if you want to go "tiny home" in the future), and likely much more secure (being a closed box in the back). They don't tend to be very expensive (although they also don't tend to have great mileage per gallon or litre of fuel - but neither do most vans of any good size).
> heck according laws car doesn't even need to have license plate, it just need to look like it's drive worthy, so not even yearly insurance fee
If you're in the United States, you might want to verify this. Usually, you need registration, plates and tags on a vehicle that isn't parked or used on private land. Your landlord may or may not be ok with having such a vehicle on their property. Insurance would be optional, but you might want to speak to your agent to find out whether your renter's policy would cover any losses from the van, or if you can get a separate rider for that - or if you need completely separate insurance coverage.
The moving trucks I've used are not very solid at all in the back. Googling, it appears that even larger trucks are made with a box that is mainly 1 mm thick aluminum (and that is claimed to be "above industry standards).
What about public squares, parks, train stations, seating in/around office plaza's, libraries, cafe's?
Please free me from open office plans, cafe chatter, and street noise.