The concept is great and I'm really happy Car2Go has arrived to Seattle. It felt like living in a future where car ownership is a thing of the past. The car was new, clean. I had never been inside a smart car, it was more spacious than I thought, while still making you feel like you can park anywhere. It is almost the length of bike! Super cool.
I used my laptop to find the closest car to where I was. I suspect most people would use their phone to get this information and I don't know how well that works. I'm not super confident it will work as well, but will reserve judgement. There's also an Android/IOs app that I have yet to try but I don't think there's a Windows Phone app yet.
The onboard computer was for the most part helpful except for 3 big issues:
1. GPS was impossible to use. The UI was not responsible at all. I would click on the state or street field and nothing would happen. Minutes later something would pop up, but by then I had given up. Maybe the computer needed some rebooting?
2. The computer screen is way too bright. I couldn't find any way of dimming it. Perhaps there was a button somewhere but the brightness itself didn't let me see much of the rest of the board.
3. The computer on board walks you through the process of ending the trip, however it seems to have missed one important step: sliding the card on the windshield. In retrospect, this was explained in the print materials I received, but as someone who doesn't drive often, I am overwhelmed by all the things one needs to do when parking a car (turn lights off, putting the key in the right place, making sure park spot is legal, etc), so I trusted the computer's instructions were complete. I ended up having to call them to resolve the issue of improperly ending the trip.
Luckily, their phone support is pretty good
Their website is OK but can be a bit confusing. Here are the main issues I had with it:
1. Whenever I go to car2go.com it redirects me to car2go.com/en/austin, and to change this is not enough to click on the "Where am I" button (which runs a geolocation request on your browser). You actually have to notice the dropdown menu on the top right and select your city there. Also, it's annoying that after doing this once, the next time you go to the website you have to do it again. I know people hate cookies, but at least give me the option to remember this selection permanently, especially if I want to stay logged in permanently.
2. There's a label on the map called reservations. It's unclear what they are. Are those cars I have reserved or cars other people have
reserved? Having a tool-tip that explains what that is or linking to a page that explains it would be nice.
3. There is also something labeled "Parkspots" but seems like it's always zero. If it's something not available in my city at all, it might be better to simply not have it as it confused me. Also, it'd be nice if the word parkspots was clickable and it could take me to a page that explains what "parkspots" are.
4.It is a bit complicated to understand whether I am allowed to end my trip in particular area, especially for someone who doesn't drive often or at all, like many of its users might be. It would be good if the map could indicate this by simply stating "yes, you can end your trip here" or "no, you can't," rather than trying to use different terms and having such a long list of caveat. Ideally, car2go should get a list of all parking spots in the city make that info available from the onboard computer itself, so you could simply hit a "am I allowed to park here?" button.
Finally, I really wish they could extend the service to allow users to end trips on the East Side. Also, I'm confused as of why areas like the U District do not seem to be areas where one could end a trip. Perhaps I'm not understanding this, in which case it's another usability issue. read more