Seattleites trying to zip around town in a car2go this afternoon are having a frustrating experience.
The car-sharing service which lets users rent vehicles and park them in city-owned spots is “experiencing a disruption” that’s causing a bit of stress for those that rely on Daimler-owned car2go to move about the city. The issues began around 3 p.m. on Monday.
@car2goSeattle not able to reserve cars via iOS app– status of network?
— Nik Krumm (@nik_krumm) April 20, 2015
Heads up seattle! If you are like me and trying to use @car2goSeattle to make a doctors appt it won't work because their network is down
— Peter Woodburn (@wernies) April 20, 2015
@car2goSeattle whats up? I'm stranded outside a c2g & am now stuck w taking a flywheel due to technical difficulties on your app. No bueno!
— Ashley E (@LittleBearNW) April 20, 2015
https://twitter.com/joeyveltkamp/status/590290783208480768
We’ve reached out to car2go for details about the outage and we’ll update when we hear back.
This isn’t the first time car2go has experienced technical difficulties in Seattle, where it has operated since early 2013. Despite the hiccups, the service now has more than 59,000 registered Car2go members in Seattle — about 10 percent of the entire population. In fact, the city said earlier this year that 3-to-4 percent of Car2go members gave up at least one vehicle, and that each car services about six trips per day.
“The program has been wildly successful,” Transportation Committee Chair Tom Rasmussen said in January.
The Seattle City Council in January unanimously approved new legislation that will allow up to four “free-floating car sharing pilot programs” like Car2go in the city. More car-sharing companies will add to new transportation options that have arrived in Seattle as of late. In July, the city council approved a regulatory framework that allowed on-demand transit startups like Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar to operate legally in the Emerald City. Then in October, Seattle launched a bike-sharing program.
Update, 6 p.m. — Car2go says its service is back up and running. It is still investigating the root cause of the disruption.
