Car Rental Company Enters Self-Driving Arena

Self-driving cars can be a scary concept to come to grips with, but with advances in technology, it may be here in the mainstream before long.

One company that’s helping to bring that into the real world is Avis Budget Group. The car rental service company just announced news of its partnership with Alphabet-owned, self-driving car company Waymo to manage it autonomous car fleet in its Phoenix, Arizona location.

In this multi-year agreement starting later in 2017, Avis will store and service Waymo’s self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans and receive a fee for doing so. Starting back in April, Avis began offering free rides in these minivans in the Phoenix area to help gather feedback from consumers.

Although this is one of the first rental car agency agreements with autonomous vehicles, this deal is not exclusive just to Avis, leaving Waymo open to partner up with any other company.

With Avis Budget Group being the parent company to Avis, Budget and Zipcar, it’s likely that this new partnership will serve as a case study for all future rental and autonomous car deals.