Automakers Discover What They Don’t Know About Moving People
Consider this one-star review by a user, identified as Jose Z., who complained that the app timed out when he tried to reserve a car: “Nice try GM,” he wrote on Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store, “but you’re trying to play in the wrong field. Other carmakers rushing to embrace this new business model, in which cars are more of a service than a product, have been met with similar complaints: buggy apps that crash or time out, dirty cars that smell like smoke, vehicles that don’t unlock when the driver arrives. Maven, with an average of 4.1 out of 5 stars, is actually one of the better-rated apps from an automaker, even though GM executives readily acknowledge that the service is a work in progress.