FlightCar falters, grounds startup: Car sharing company shutters, tech sold to Mercedes-Benz

The essence of the FlightCar will live on though, as the technology platform has been sold to Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, and will be used to beef up the luxury car brand’s innovation lab for new services, according to the announcement.

The FlightCar business model was built around facilitating travelers renting their cars to others while they were out of town. Those who used the site’s services would receive a share of the rental proceeds, a free lift to the airport and a car wash.

The company claimed it accomplished its goal of building community through its ride sharing model, according to the announcement.

“We believe that people around the world can be more self-reliant by sharing their resources to improve society, and we truly appreciate the community that came together to share and rent each others’ unique cars,” according to the announcement, posted Thursday, July 14.

Despite the ambitious vision, the airport startup company had traveled through series of bumpy stretches over the past few years.

Trouble started when three cars were stolen in 2013 from the company’s storage facility at 480 El Camino Real in Millbrae, the former Daland Nissan site.

Later, the Millbrae City Council ordered FlightCar to shut down its location due to a variety of code violations such as a lack of background checks on renters, unwarranted electrical generators, poor property maintenance and other issues.

Though company officials at the time disputed the violation claims, which resulted in a lawsuit being filed against the city, ultimately FlightCar elected to relocate to a different facility in South San Francisco.

Differences with Millbrae officials were not the only difficulties plaguing FlightCar, as the company restructured its management and two of its three founding members left earlier this year, according to an article in VentureBeat.

FlightCar also struggled to overcome a poor reputation built by numerous bad reviews from customers upset with what they claimed was a poor user experience.

But it was not doom and gloom all the time for the company, which had been acknowledged by national publications as one of the more innovative startup companies in recent years, and raised millions of dollars in venture capital funding from notable names such as the Andreesen Horowitz firm, as well as Ryan Seacrest and Ashton Kutcher.

The company had run at 12 different airports across the nation, but all operations are set to cease shortly. The company will not be accepting new reservations, and vehicle storage stations will be closing in the coming weeks. Those who are currently using the service should have received an email with information about how to best proceed, according to the website.

FlightCar is not disclosing the sales price of its technology platform, according to spokeswoman Julie Supan, who expressed enthusiasm for the future of the company’s product.

“Our technology will now be a part of the business innovation division at MBRDNA, the innovation lab for new mobility services,” she said, in an email. “We are excited to be part of Mercedes-Benz’s future of shared mobility projects.”

Suppan also thanked those who had used the car sharing service.

“We deeply appreciate and admire the thousands of people who came together to share their cars when traveling,” she said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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