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Phoenix666 writes:

Ford doesn't think everyone needs to own a Ford, but it still wants non-car-owners to drive them. The company said this week that it will be testing a car-sharing pilot program to learn about how willing Ford owners are to share their vehicles. As part of the program, people who buy their cars through the company's credit arm, Ford Credit, will be invited to offset their monthly payments by allowing drivers to rent their cars by the hour. The company also launched an in-house car-sharing program in London.

The pilot program in the US will take place through Getaround—an existing mobile platform that lets users list their cars and rent them out to pre-screened drivers. Getaround already operates in California in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, as well as Portland, Oregon; and Washington, DC. Ford's pilot program, called "Peer-2-Peer Car Sharing," will also take the program to Chicago, where Getaround has yet to launch, and to London through a car-sharing service called easyCar Club.

Ford will reach out to 14,000 US car owners who financed their Fords on credit, asking they if they'd like to participate in the program. It will do the same for 12,000 such customers in London.

Predictions on how private-car sharing will play out? However it does, Ford seems to have been ahead of other American car manufacturers with its integration of information technology.