Hyperdrive
The Future of Urban Transport Faces a Make-or-Break Moment
- The coronavirus threatens to decimate the car-sharing market
- Shakeout could help survivors when demand gradually recovers
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To get around Madrid, Javier Wassmann used to wake up in the morning, grab his smartphone and start searching car-sharing apps to find a ride to work. Then came the coronavirus.
“Now I don’t want to use a car without knowing how long ago someone else was in it, if that person was wearing a mask or perhaps coughed on the steering wheel,” said the 37-year-old engineer in the Spanish capital, where four companies compete for customers with flexible, short-hop rentals. “I really don’t need to do it.”