RelayRides公司的CEO安德里•海达德鼓励陌生人借用他的2006版保时捷911——在他自己不用的时候。

    愿意分享——即便是贵重如跑车的物品——是合伙用车的前提。这是一项蓬勃发展的行业，将车主和需要临时借用汽车的人联系在了一起。Zipcar从2000年的社区车队起步，目前规模已经发展到使私人车主可以通过网络将自己的汽车借给陌生人。其结果是，合伙用车开始动摇长期以来根深蒂固的汽车所有权结构。

    共享经济在几年内就得到了迅速发展。人们出租空余的房屋（例如AirBnB的服务）、利用率较低的会议室（例如LiquidSpace的服务），甚至他们的空闲劳动力（例如TaskRabbit的服务）。交通业则经历了最为巨大的变化。Edmund.com的首席经济学家莱西•普拉茨在2012年的一项研究中发现，2011年，18-34岁的年轻人购买汽车的数量比2007年减少了30%。如今，合伙用车作为一个领先指标，代表了更广阔领域的共享服务。

    合伙用车的支持者认为，对车主而言，把车通过RelayRides或者FlightCar这样的网站租给陌生人可以大幅降低（甚至完全抵消）养车费用。对租车者而言，只在有需求的时候租车比买车更加便宜，在大城市尤其如此。合伙用车和拼车的概念受到了需要用车的年轻智能手机用户的热捧。RelayRides的哈达德说：“很久以来，汽车都是自由和成人的象征。但在许多年轻人心中，这一象征显然已经开始动摇。”

    合伙用车是如何实现的呢？旧金山的FlightCar公司使车主可以在外出旅行时出租他们的汽车。比如，车主们把车停在机场，其他旅客可以在他们回来之前借用。拼车服务公司SideCar和Lyft的总部也设在旧金山，他们把需要用车的人和当地的车主联系起来，让车主将他们送到目的地，双方只需要在应用上进行操作就能实现这项服务。有了智能手机技术的帮助，如今甚至传统的出租车和豪车租赁服务也在加入这一行列。Flywheel和Uber通过GPS寻找最近的司机，帮助乘客招来出租车或豪华轿车。

    美国城市人口的增长有力推动了这类服务的发展。根据人口普查数据，2010年，美国有超过80%的人口居住在城市，而1980年这一比例只有73%。城市给车主带来了一系列经济挑战，如高油价、保险费、找不到停车位或停车费很贵等。持车成本上升，让年轻人不再蜂拥前往机动车驾驶管理处。1978年，16岁的年轻人约一半都拿到了驾照，到2008年，这一比例降至31%，2010年进一步降低至28%。对于偶尔用车的人来说，向邻居租车就足够了。而对于没有驾照的人而言，搭车也变得更加容易。SideCar的CEO苏尼尔•保罗说：“我们的经济已经从面向产品转变为面向服务。我们将会把出行从一项产品（购买汽车）变为一项服务（下载这个应用）。”

    When RelayRides CEO Andre Haddad isn't using his 2006 Porsche 911, he encourages strangers to drive it.

    This willingness to share -- even something as valuable as a sports car -- is the premise behind carsharing, a growing industry that connects car owners with renters seeking out a temporary set of wheels. What started with Zipcar's community car fleets in 2000 has expanded to include individual owners making their cars available to strangers over the internet. Carsharing, as a result, is threatening the long-entrenched structure of auto ownership.

    The so-called sharing economy -- people rent out spare bedrooms (AirBnB), under-utilized conference rooms (LiquidSpace), and even their free labor (TaskRabbit) -- has grown substantially in just a few years. But the transportation industry has seen the greatest change. A 2012 study by Lacey Plache, chief economist at Edmunds.com, found that young adults aged 18-34 purchased 30% fewer cars in 2011 than they did in 2007. Now, carsharing may be a leading indicator for a much broader set of services.

    Carsharing proponents argue that, for those who own vehicles, renting them out to strangers through services like RelayRides or FlightCar can defray car payments considerably (sometimes altogether). For renters, paying for a car only when it is actually needed can be much less expensive ownership, particularly in big cities. Carsharing -- along with a revamped take on carpooling, dubbed ridesharing -- has gotten a jolt from smartphone-wielding millennials in need of a ride. "For a long time the [car] was the symbol of freedom, the symbol of adulthood," says Haddad of RelayRides. "That's apparently been shaken up in a lot of younger people's minds."

    How's it work? San Francisco-based FlightCar allows car owners to rent out their wheels while traveling. Users park at the airport, for instance, and let another traveler use their cars until they return. Ridesharing services like SideCar and Lyft, both headquartered in San Francisco, connect ride-seekers with local drivers who use their own cars to taxi people around; they require only an app to operate. Thanks to smartphone technology, even traditional taxi and limo services are working to get in on the action. Flywheel and Uber help passengers hail taxis or limo-type rides using GPS to find the closest possible driver.

    Such services have been largely fueled by a growing number of American urbanites. In 2010, more than 80% of the U.S. population lived in urban areas compared to only 73% in 1980, according to census data. Cities provide car owners with financial challenges like higher gas prices, insurance, and difficult to find or expensive parking. These higher ownership costs have kept teenagers from rushing to the DMV. Roughly half of all 16-year-olds had their driver's license in 1978. By 2008, that figure fell to 31%; in 2010, it was down to 28%. For people who need cars only sparingly, renting from a neighbor is sufficient. For those without a license, bumming a ride has become easier. "We are moving from a product-oriented economy to a services-oriented economy," says Sunil Paul, CEO of SideCar. "We are going to turn transportation from a product (buy a car), to a service (download this app)."

    合伙用车和拼车平台填补了这一空白。2012年6月，SideCar的司机就已经完成了1万次搭载，而到12月，这一数字上升至10万。RelayRides在全美1200多个城市拥有供出租的汽车，所有城市从去年起增加了车辆数量。Flywheel的出租车订车软件安装在国内3000辆出租车中，供应商可能将在三月底使用“在线呼叫”技术，软件的使用范围将迅速扩散至纽约。Zipcar拥有超过76万名会员，并在一月被Avis以5亿美元收购。

    当然，经济萧条时期出现的合伙用车和拼车服务的潮流也在与复苏的汽车产业竞争——美国2012年的汽车销量比2011年上升了13%。以上升21%的克莱斯勒（Chrysler）为首，美国三大汽车巨头销量皆有提升。分享经济的支持者并非过去几年中唯一尝试降低持车成本的人群——经济衰退时期，汽车代理商向顾客提供比银行更低利息的购车贷款，努力打消他们的购车恐惧。

    拼车也在挑战国家法律的界限。去年秋天，加州公共事业委员会（CPUC）对使用Lyft应用的Uber、SideCar和Zimride处以了2万美元的罚金。大约同时，CPUC还对SideCar和Lyft发出了禁止令，Uber则在2010年收到了禁止函。去年10月，Uber退出纽约市场，声称受到了计程车管理委员会（Taxi and Limousine Commission）的“阻碍”。（去年12月纽约市同意了使用“在线招车”应用，而计程车管理委员会由于试图阻止本月即将开展的在线招车项目，遭到了Livery汽车集团的起诉。）在加州，由于国家开启了“过渡立法阶段”，以决定如何更好地应对这种新的交通方式，CPUC对Lyft和Uber罚款于一月暂缓。协议还规定拼车暂时合法化。Uber目前只将乘客与拥有商业许可的出租车和城镇汽车司机配对，公司发博文表示打算在拼车业务上加入Lyft和Sidebar。

    保罗称，关于政府对待拼车服务公司的态度，出租车运营公司颇多微词，而其他传统的交通业参与者也会很快注意到合伙用车和拼车平台的兴起。在合伙用车领域拥有十年丰富经验的Zipcar公司今年年初被Avis收购，已有迹象表明Avis将对Zipcar进行改造。哈达德说，迄今为止，RelayRides尚未与任何租车服务公司有过联系，不过已经获得了汽车业巨头通用汽车（General Motors）的支持。该公司的投资部门通用汽车风险投资公司（GM Venture）为其提供资金帮助。

    在当今的交通版图上，不同的共享团体已经开始各司其职，看起来似乎每个人都有发挥的空间。汉弗莱说：“作为供应商，我们需要关注的是说服消费者，打消他们购买汽车的念头，为使他们达到目的地提供各种选择。”（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    Carsharing and ridesharing platforms have stepped in to fill the void. SideCar drivers had completed 10,000 rides in July of 2012; by December that figure rose to 100,000. RelayRides has cars for rent in more than 1,200 cities across the country, all of them added since last year. Flywheel's taxi hailing software is in 3,000 taxis across the country, and will soon expand into New York City when vendors begin using "e-hail" technology, possibly at the end of March. Zipcar has more than 760,000 members and was acquired by Avis for $500 million in January.

    Of course, this stream of carsharing and ridesharing services that cropped up during the recession is also competing with a rejuvenated auto industry -- U.S. car sales were up 13% in 2012 over 2011. All three major U.S. automakers showed improved sales led by Chrysler's 21% jump last year. And sharing economy proponents aren't the only ones who have been trying to make car ownership cheaper the last few years -- during the recession, car dealerships worked hard to stifle ownership fears by offering customers lower interest rates on car loans than the banks.

    Ridesharing is also testing the bounds set up by state law. Last fall, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) levied $20,000 fines against Uber, SideCar, and Zimride, which operates the Lyft app. The CPUC issued a cease and desist to both SideCar and Lyft around the same time; Uber received its cease and desist letter in 2010. In October, Uber pulled out of New York City, citing "roadblocks" from the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). (The city approved "e-hail" apps in December, but the TLC is now being sued by Livery car groups in an attempt to stop the e-hail program, which could start this month.) In California, the CPUC fines for Lyft and Uber were suspended in January as the state began an "interim rulemaking period" to determine how best to approach this new avenue of transportation. The agreement specified that ridesharing was also temporarily legal. In a blog post, Uber, which currently only matches up passengers with commercially licensed taxi or town car drivers, announced intentions to join Lyft and SideCar in the ridesharing business.

    According to Paul, taxi operators provide the majority of complaints to the state regarding competitor ridesharing services, and other established transportation players will soon take notice of these carsharing and ridesharing platforms if they haven't already. Avis (CAR) showed signs of adaptation when it purchased Zipcar, a carsharing veteran at just over a decade old, at the beginning of the year. RelayRides hasn't made contact with any rental services to date, says Haddad, but has gotten support from one major automaker: General Motors (GM). GM Ventures, the corporation's investment arm, is a financial backer.

    Different sharing communities have begun to carve out their respective roles in the modern transportation landscape, and it appears as if there is room for everybody -- for now. "What we need to be focused on as vendors," says Humphreys, "is getting consumers around, getting them to not want to own a car, and getting them all the alternatives they want to get their hired rides."