With this “Policy White Paper 1.0,” Kalanick stated that while at first Uber refrained from participating in ride-sharing due to regulatory risk, the “ambiguity” has encouraged him to implement ride-sharing as part of the app in “any market where the regulators have given tacit approval.”

“In most cities across the country, regulators have chosen not to enforce against nonlicensed transportation providers using ride-sharing apps,” he said. “This course of nonaction resulted in massive regulatory ambiguity leading to one-sided competition which Uber has not engaged in to its own disadvantage. … In the face of this challenge, Uber could have chosen to do nothing. We could have chosen to use regulation to thwart our competitors. Instead, we chose the path that reflects our company’s core: We chose to compete.”

Uber will now offer a ride-sharing feature in markets where a competitor has operated for 30 days without direct enforcement against them. There will be safety and insurance safeguards that “go beyond what local regulatory bodies have in place for commercial transportation,” including a $2 million insurance policy and extensive background checks on the drivers.

Kalanick said that while ride-sharing apps operate without traditional commercial insurance or licensing, Uber has taken most of the legal heat despite that its approach involves buying cars as well as having proper insurance and licenses. After watching regulators in New York, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and California choose not to enforce “nonlicensed operators” such as Lyft, Kalanick will no longer sit on the sidelines.

He founded Uber because he was frustrated with the existing transportation options in cities and wanted to provide a superior alternative. Ride-sharing systems like Lyft and SideCar hold a similar goal: to offer on-demand, convenient, affordable rides to city residents.

Uber first started with its on-demand black car service and has since added SUV, Taxi, and UBERx, a cheaper midrange car option. Since the beginning, Uber has faced significant opposition from municipal regulators and transportation agencies (not to mention taxi cab companies) and has fought battles around the country to remain operational. Kalanick is known for never shying from a battle. He has consistently fought for his company’s right to exist, while at the same time growing Uber into an international company and adding new modes of transportation.

Now Kalanick is ready to compete in ride-sharing. As he said during a fireside chat last year, he thrives on competition.

“Competition is fun,” he said. “If there isn’t competition, what is the freaking purpose? Let’s have some fun and make the world a better place at the same time. You have to be fighter, you have to be a warrior, and if not, you should go do something that is a little less disruptive. I’m bringing it, I’m not sleeping. If the other guy is sleeping, I am going to kick his ass.”

Ride-sharing is starting to resemble a melee, with iPhones and pink mustaches as weapons. The question on my mind is that faced with legal opposition from regulators: Will these competitors band together? Competition may be good, but they all have the same enemies and the same battles to fight. Let the games begin.

Read the White Paper here.

Image credit: storem/Flickr

Subaru unveiled its first-ever hybrid at the New York Auto Show today.

“What?” you ask incredulously. “They’re just now doing a hybrid?”

Yeah, well, they were early to the game on supporting LGBT equality. Ya win some, ya lose some.

The automobile taking up the spotlight today is the XV Crosstrek Hybrid. It’s pretty much the regular XV Crosstrek but with a heavier engine that sometimes won’t use gas.

From its landing page:

Designed with the foundation of Subaru engineering, the all-new 2014 XV Crosstrek Hybrid offers the control and balance drivers expect from a Subaru vehicle. And as the most fuel-efficient AWD hybrid crossover in America, it also offers an earth-conscious attitude.

The SUBARU BOXER engine provides a low center of gravity for agile handling. Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive flows power to all wheels for a constant grip on the road while still giving you great fuel efficiency. Best of all, it’s an Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle making it the lowest-emissions AWD hybrid crossover in America.

The hybrid version of the Boxer engine weighs around 300 pounds more than the standard gas-only version. In low-speed situations, the car can run on electricity, and it can start on electricity. The gas engine is used for the extra get-up-and-go.

The company also showed off a new WRX concept car at the show:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Americans spend 45 billion hours a year in the car, which is more than four times as much time as they spend on Facebook.

Joyride seeks to make this time more fun with voice-activated mobile applications that provide a safe and social way to spend the driving hours. The startup is launching publicly today after presenting off-the-record at the Founder Den Demo Day last week and announcing $1 million in funding.

Founders Jeff Chen and James Zhang previously developed Skyvi, a voice-activated media app which is like Siri for Android. They applied this expertise to creating the VoiceUI Architecture platform that forms Joyride’s foundation.

“We are not talking about a simple ‘navigate’ or text command,” said Chen during an interview at VentureBeat. “We are talking about a full-blown rich mobile application that is 100 percent hands-free and brings all the social fun pieces of the Internet to you while you are driving.”

The first application built on this voice platform is a trivia game. Your phone asks you questions about historical figures, landmarks, or events (and more) and provides clues. When you have a guess, you say it out loud, and you score points for being right. The game is what Chen describes as “fake synchronous.” You are neither playing against other people in real time or against a machine. Instead, you are matched against other players whose activity was already saved in the system. It gives the illusion of social connectivity — without the behind-the-wheel dangers.

“Internet penetration of the car is a big macro trend, and Internet usage in the car is inevitable,” Chen said. “Voice tech is finally getting really good, and with cloud services and connected devices, we are really seeing voice recognition where it can be great.

“The third factor here is social. People are super-bored while they are driving, and we think people want a social experience that is a safer alternative to mobile apps.”

The technology’s design has three criteria, according to CTO James Zhang. The first is a “reusable voice user interface” (VUI) that maintains data about certain commands. The second is how it handles arbitrary user input, or knowing what interactions apply to the app and which don’t. Third is the “equal coexistence” of voice and gesture user interface, all connected to the driver through the smartphone’s connectivity and an AUX jack or Bluetooth.

Down the road, Joyride plans to build a diverse library of applications on top of this platform that provide engaging in-car experiences.

“The most important thing is that people are suffering in their cars,” Chen said. “They are these tiny little boxes with tiny little windows and we are going to turn cars into starships and make it fun and interesting and even safer. This is just the beginning. It is a cool, untapped area that has a lot of potential.”

Investors see potential here, too. Freestyle Capital and the Cowboy Venture Fund, as well as angel investor Seth Goldstein, provided seed financing to to build out the engineering team and accelerate entrance into the market.

Photo Credit: Joyride

Just five days after the $500 million deal closed, Zipcars are showing up at New York regional airports. Skift reported this morning that the Avis Car Rental pick-up facilities at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark now house a handful of Zipcars, available at rates ranging from $12 per hour to $89 per day.

“The availability of Zipcars at airports will provide increased options for members who may not need a full day rental car, or for those who need to travel somewhere not easily accessible by public transit,” Zipcar president Mark Norman said. “We believe this is the first in many new offerings that will enhance the value of Zipcar membership that we can provide thanks to the support of the Avis Budget Group.”

This small expansion to airports is just the beginning. Norman said Zipcars will be available in additional airport locations over the course of the year, marking a departure from Zipcar’s traditional placement in cities and college campuses.

Avis and Zipcar announced the deal on January 2nd, but the papers were officially signed on March 15. Within hours, Zipcar’s CEO Scott Griffith resigned and COO Mark Norman took the job as top dog. Despite Zipcar’s popularity (it was 730,000 members and 1 million customers), the company was never able to turn a profit, losing about $55 million since 2007. The Avis acquisition will help both companies expand their reach and offer greater choice to consumers.  

“By combining with Zipcar, we will significantly increase our growth potential, both in the United States and internationally, and will position our company to better serve a greater variety of consumer and commercial transportation needs,” Avis Budget Group CEO Ronald Nelson said in a statement. “We see car sharing as highly complementary to traditional car rental, with rapid growth potential and representing a scalable opportunity for us as a combined company.”

Zipcar now operates as a subsidiary of Avis. Avis said it expects “to generate $50 to $70 million in annual synergies” in relation to the deal.

Splitsecnd is a crash detection and emergency response system. It works through a small piece of hardware that plugs into a car’s cigarette lighter. In the event of a collision, Splitsecnd automatically calls for help.

“The idea is to make it really easy to get the help you need in the event of an accident and reduce the amount of time it takes for emergency to get there,” said CEO and founder Chris Thompson in an interview with VentureBeat. “People want to make sure their grandparents, kids, and spouses have something that connects them immediately to help. An phone app is not a good solution. Built-in solutions are only available in luxury cars, and our closest competitor is OnStar, which requires professional installation. All you have to do with Splitsecnd is plug it in.”

If a serious accident occurs, a driver (or their passengers) may not be able to call for help themselves. Splitsecnd uploads the car’s location to a cellular data network and notifies a response center. Someone at the response center will assess the situation and deploy a local 911 team if necessary. The device also has a backup battery charger so it can function even if it’s expelled from the car. The team spent time doing crash tests at the University of Michigan, simulating the worst case scenario to see how Splitsecnd help up. Thompson said that the collisions made a lot of noise, but they could still hear the device making the call.

On-road safety is not only about collisions, however. During early market research for the product, Thompson discovered that most people wanted to buy Splitsecnd for someone else.

“We found that people want to buy this for people they care about,” Thompson said. “Husbands want to buy it for their wives, and wives want to buy it for their husbands. My grandparents are pretty good drivers, but they don’t really use cell phones. My grandfather had three heart attacks. If he had heart attack in the car, he can push the ‘help’ button and be connected. Splitscnd is able to take over when you may not be able to.”

The Family Finder feature monitors the safety of your loved ones in real time. This is useful for senior citizens, who may be prone to getting lost, but particularly for the parents of teenagers who want to know where their kids are.

Thompson said that shaving just a minute off response time could reduce morbidity and mortality of auto accidents by 6 percent. Furthermore, there is a wealth of possibilities in the realm of connected cars. The “Internet of Things,” and particularly of cars, are hot topics right now in the tech world. Startups and international corporations alike are taking interest in this area. Earlier this year, Cisco and NXP announced a strategic investment in Cohda Wireless, which builds hardware to make cars smarter. Intel Capital formed the Connected Car Fund a year ago, dedicating $100 million toward technology that connects cars to the web.

Splitsecnd, however, is not geared toward people who interested in hi-tech. The startup’s mission is to make heightened automobile safety accessible to people without smartphones or GPS systems, who aren’t driving luxury cars, and who may not be the most tech savvy. Thompson said the company will start with online sales only, but the plan is to grow into more traditional retail outlets, big box stores, and car dealerships. The device costs $199, with a $14.99 a month fee.

To fuel this growth, Nashville-based Splitsecnd raised $2.1 million from Tennessee Community Ventures, the INCITE co-investment fund, the Jumpstart Foundry, and a private investor.

For now, Splitsecnd is focuses on emergency response. However, the realm of machine-to-machine communication is wide and there are plenty of applications down-the-road.

Photo Credit: JasonParis/Flickr

RepairPal.com, which simplifies the process of car maintenance, has received $13 million in funding fuel to expand its network.

“RepairPal is doing for auto repair what Cars.com did for car purchasing,” said Greg McGivney, Cars.com’s vice president of strategy and business development, in a statement. “When transparency, expert advice and high standards reign, the customer wins. RepairPal has its priorities in the right place and we believe they will transform the auto repair industry.”

Cars.com and Castrol innoVentures led this round and will support RepairPal with expertise and strategic resources as well as financing.

Servicing a car is generally an expensive and stressful process. The average person does not have intimate knowledge of a vehicle’s inner-workings, nor a strong sense of how various repairs should be priced, especially as cars have become more complicated with on-board computers and other electronics. As a result, many consumers are easy targets for being overcharged, as they’re unaware of subpar work and are likely to sign up for unnecessary services.

To protect against these sorts of swindles, sites like Car Talk and Angie’s List collect user-generated tips and reviews. However, like any crowdsourced forum, the content comes from the opinions of strangers and is not necessarily trustworthy.

RepairPal uses data analytics to give consumers objective and legitimate information. Its system collects data from surveys, repair invoices, manufacturers, and so on to estimate the cost and time requirements of common repairs and services.

“We arm consumers with all the information needed to ensure they get the right services at the right price,” said the company on its site.

Once they have obtained all the relevant information, users can also search for trusted, certified, qualified mechanics in their area. The technicians who service the cars then write reports with “essential insights” about associated repairs, details about parts and procedures, and other tidbits to keep in mind. RepairPal also provides a centralized online location to maintain all car records and advice.

So far, there are 200 shops in the RepairPal network across 35 states, with multiple locations in California, New York, Chicago, Denver, Texas, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Miami. The funding will add shops and markets as well as accelerate product development. Features in the pipelines include reminders about upcoming oil changes or other services.

RepairPal was founded in 2007 and is located in San Francisco. This brings its total amount raised to $20.35 million.

This experiment is called IdeaMensch and it is “a road trip for people with ideas.” Packed into a Honda Element, the team visited 48 states and held events at every stop along the way. They held these events anywhere that was available, including startup co-working spaces, wineries, and even an old mill. In each location, a handful of local entrepreneurs would speak on how they brought their ideas to life.

“We all have ideas,” said Mario Schulzke, the instigator of this adventure. “My belief is that as entrepreneurs, the one thing that connects us is how we are bringing them to live. Entrepreneurs are everywhere and we believe that the best way for people to get inspired to start working on their ideas is by listening to other entrepreneurs talk about how they did it.”

The focus is on execution, rather than inspiration. Speakers ranged from technology luminaries, like CEO of Techstars David Cohen and cofounder of Kiva Jessica Jackley, to one of the writers of the movie Old School and a pig farmer in Iowa. IdeaMensch initially began as a site featuring video interviews. It was a side project for Schulzke who worked in digital strategy and advertising and felt frustrated by his own inability to carry out an idea and wanted to hear from people who succeeded. The interest on both ends was strong, and the platform quickly grew to hundreds of videos and a nationwide audience.

“To have a successful startup ecosystem, you have to have a pay it forward mentality,” he said. “The meaning of the word mensch is a good person, and we found so many people who are willing and wanting to associate themselves with this effort. Oftentimes, what I see is that the more successful the entrepreneur, the more generous they are.”

The events sold over 2,000 tickets and there were 172 speakers in total. The whole tour was self-financed with sponsorships, ticket sales, and a scrappy lifestyle. The foursome slept on floors and couches, stayed in cheap hotels, and ate massive amounts of PopChips, who sponsored their journey. Like true entrepreneurs, the crew was innovative with their limited resources and incorporated the snack into salads, burritos, and grilled cheese sandwiches. The URL extensions .CO, Startuphire, and eMinutes were also sponsors.

Schulzke said the support and interest was overwhelming, which he attributes to the requisite passion that comes along with entrepreneurship.

“You have to be kind of crazy to be an entrepreneur and really have to believe in what you are doing,” he said. “If you don’t believe in yourself and you aren’t passionate, than others won’t be either.”

All in all, the journey spanned 20,000 miles and only $261 in speeding tickets. The biggest event was unexpectedly in Burlington, Vermont when 150 people came out. Of course there were struggles along the way- fatigue, overindulgence of Popchips, being forced to hunt and butcher a pig, and refunding a slew of tickets to the excessive profanity of one of the speakers, but what is a road trip, or entrepreneurialism,  without a few potholes?

If so, however, Americans will have to warm up to a 4-seater bubble of a car with a 15-liter gas tank (about four gallons), a 624 CC two-cylinder engine with under 40 horsepower, and under three cubic feet of storage space.

Tata Group billionaire boss Ratan Tata says, however, that Tata is redesigning the Nano for both the U.S. and European markets. So those vital statistics will probably improve.

If so, they’ll increase that sticker price. Currently, the Tata is the cheapest new car available today, selling for the equivalent of $3,500 in India, which means that an average worker for Wipro, the massive business services outsourcing firm, could buy about two of them with her annual salary. Or, if you go by the national average, an Indian worker would spend three years of his salary to buy the Nano.

Source: Tata

Tata Nano interior

The price won’t be a problem in the U.S., obviously. Features will.

Tata Nano’s top speed of 65 mph and its cramped interior definitely will not appeal to all in spite of the success of the Austin Mini, Smart Cars, and the Fiat 500. Nano is two feet shorter than the Mini and decidedly bare-bones inside.

Currently, the heater is optional in the base model, and it has no options for A/C or heated seats. Headrests are a highlighted feature, as are a low fuel warning lamp and an interior cabin light.

The redesign will need to add a few more features before the Nano excites too many Europeans or Americans, including government-mandated airbags and other safety features. While they’re at it, a Bond-style remote control, like this $10,000 Chinese car, wouldn’t be a bad idea.

But you can’t deny that the car has a funky appeal to it … and a very cheap, small, efficient car might be just the ticket for young urbanites. At that price, who wouldn’t be tempted?

Founders Dwight Crow and Christopher Berner were acqui-hired by Facebook today. Terms were not disclosed, but what is clear is that Facebook is not getting into the business of helping you buy and sell cars. At least, not anymore than it already has via the Facebook Marketplace app, powered by Oodle.

The founders announced their new jobs on the Carsabi blog:

We created Carsabi back in Oct 2011 with the goal of easing the process of purchasing a used car and providing a service that aims to index every automotive vehicle and connect more users to their car of choice each day.

But now it’s time for us to take a different turn. We want to take this impact to the next level – and help Facebook users connect and share. Because Facebook is not acquiring Carsabi.com, we’re looking for someone to buy the Carsabi service, so the two of us can focus on our new jobs. We can’t thank all of you that have used Carsabi enough – developing Carsabi has been an incredibly rewarding experience, and we hope we helped you think differently about how to find the perfect used car!

We want to give special thanks to our partners, customers, and investors for helping us fulfill our dream.

Christopher & Dwight

A Y Combinator grad with attitude, Carsabi launched at Demo Day in March of this year. The goal was to index every vehicle for sale and connect the right user to the right car. That goal became a tougher job when, in its crusade to shut down competition, Craigslist blocked Carsabi from indexing its car listings.

That may also be the reason Carsabi’s traffic has halved recently:

Source: Compete.com

Carsabi traffic

Crow and Berner are now looking for a buyer for the Carsabi service, since Facebook will not be taking that over, but it’s unclear who will want a scraping service that is blocked from one of the key scraping sources … and, as a Y Combinator company doesn’t have a ton of investment.

It won’t help that the site currently looks a little abandoned:

Source: Carsabi

Carsabi, October 1 at 2:30 PST

Perhaps Craigslist itself could use a new interface to potentially lucrative car sales.

photo credit: Vu Bui via photopin cc

The BYD Su Rui is an ordinary-looking 5-seat sedan with 154 horsepower and 36 miles to the gallon. But it comes standard with very un-ordinary remote control technology that allows owners to park the car in tight spots, call the car over to pick them up in case of inclement weather, or show off for their friends — all at the sedate pace of 1.2 miles per hour.

At least, until hackers figure out a way to boost that speed.

Source: TechNovelgy

The Su Rui remote control is not exactly like James Bond’s remote control in Tomorrow Never Dies.

BYD won a “Best Leading Science and Technology” award at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show for its remote driving technology. And while it won’t allow owners to drive their vehicles at the speed and distance of James Bond’s BMW in Tomorrow Never Dies, it is the first ever full-size vehicle you can treat like an RC toy from Radio Shack.

Using the included remote, drivers can start the car, move it forward and backward, and turn. Owners can also turn on the heat or A/C to get the cabin temperature just right.

The remote control functionality, however, is only operational when the driver is within 30 feet of the vehicle, likely as a safety measure. Again, I’m sure that interested hackers will increase that range shortly. In fact, install a camera, extend range via WiFi or radio … and the remote control could get even more interesting.

And I’m not sure why hackers would only mod their own vehicles. I’m predicting here and now that we will hear stories of car hacking, whether malicious or prank. And possibly even police reports of vehicles being stolen without any actual thief being physically present.

The Su Rui is available for just $10,365 USD for the base 1.5 liter model, or $15,710 for a turbo-charged version.

Image credit: BYD

Getaround, the car-sharing marketplace that makes it dead easy to take a spin in a stranger’s car, has pulled in $13.9 million in first round funding from an all-star cast of investors: Menlo Ventures’ Shervin Pishevar, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, actor Ashton Kutcher, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

“Our investors want to disrupt transportation as much as we do,” said company co-founder Jessica Scorpio (pictured above). “There are way too many cars on the planet.”

Scorpio told me she was first approached by Mayer, who invests in about five or six companies a year, at TechCrunch Disrupt, where the company launched last year. This is Mayer’s first investment since joining Yahoo as CEO and follows recent investments in Airtime and Square.

San Francisco-based Getaround was founded in 2009 and has grown quickly in recent years, expanding to new cities and signing up over 10,000 car owners across the country. Scorpio told me the startup recently eclipsed rival Zipcar, which currently owns about 8,000 cars. International expansion is in the cards, but the company remains focused on the U.S. market.

Scorpio said it was the hardware that sold Mayer on the concept. Once installed, the Getaround CarKit allows cars to be unlocked via a smartphone. This is the key differentiator, as it takes the pain out of the hand-off process between renter and owner. Although Scorpio said she views the main obstacle as car ownership, Getaround faces competition from Zipcar, Zimride, Car2Go, and Relayrides, as well as a host of newcomers in the hot car-sharing space.

Scorpio told me the company plans to use the funds to expand into new cities beyond San Francisco, Portland, Austin, and San Diego and to forge partnerships with key players, such as car dealers and auto-makers.

The company may also search for new ways to monetize; it currently makes money by charging the car owner a 40 percent commission. This may seems high, but it’s a better alternative to leaving your car in a lot to slowly gather dust.

Funding aside, since Getaround’s inception, Scorpio said she had a niggling use-case in mind, one that she hasn’t been able to let go. ”A lot of people have approached us and said they would like to share their car on Getaround but couldn’t manage it themselves,” she said.

So today, Getaround also launches a product in beta called Getaway. Getaway is a new service for car owners who want to rent their car on a full-time basis. It’s an ideal option for college students, backpackers, or business travelers don’t want to sell their car or shoulder the cost of storing it.

Getaway is currently only available in San Francisco and Chicago.

On Getaway, car owners are guaranteed $1000 a month, or Getaround will make up the difference. The guidelines for Getaway cars remain about the same: the company will only accept automatics that are under-five-years old, and have accumulated less than 100,000 miles.

To ensure your car won’t be in the wrong hands, Getaround will deliver a monthly report detailing where the car has been driven and the milage. If there’s a special request (for instance, you only want to rent to an urban driver), the company’s support team is willing to negotiate.

Scorpio told me that competitors in the ride sharing space are sprouting up fast and furious, a direct result in renewed interest in the collaborative consumption space. “When we started the company, the sharing economy didn’t exist so we knew we had to change people’s mindset,” she said.

Scorpio credits social networks with improving transparency and mitigating risk for the owner. Strangers will trust each other with their most intimate possessions – their cars and homes — knowing through Facebook and LinkedIn that they are only 2 or 3 degrees of separation away.

The round is led by Menlo Ventures’s Shervin Pishevar, who will join the company’s board. This is the largest round since the raised $3.4 million in September, 2011.

Or costing you more, if you’re Mario Andretti in a minivan.

Source: Progressive

Progressive’s Snapshot device

Progressive’s system, called Snapshot, works by plugging a little electronic dongle into your vehicle. Previously only available to select Progressive clients, Snapshot is now available to all clients … and customers of any other insurance agency.

The device tracks three driving behaviors: time of day you’re driving, distance you’re driving, and how many times you hit the brakes hard per mile.

Snapshot uploads that data to Progressive via the cellular network, and from those three driving behaviors, Progressive can assess your accident risk much more effectively than before.

“Until now, insurers had no effective way to capture actual driving behavior and factor that into the rates they could offer,” Progressive chief executive Glenn Renwick said in a statement. “But we have made a meaningful start toward personalized insurance pricing that’s based on measuring real-time driving behavior.”

In testing the program, Progressive said 70 percent of drivers who sign up for Snapshot actually save money, averaging $150 in annual savings. More than a million drivers have beta tested the device, saving more than $70 million so far.

The question is, of course: are already-safe drivers choosing the device, or is the device making drivers safer? Perhaps both, according to Progressive:

“Snapshot is an optional program, which tends to attract safe drivers — as evidenced by the fact that seven out of ten save,” a company representative told VentureBeat. But, the spokesperson added, “drivers with the device in their cars tend to be more aware of their driving overall.”

After a month of usage, drivers can go online to check their stats … and get a new quote, potentially saving them money.

What if Snapshot decides that you are a bad insurance risk? Will your costs go up?

According to Progressive, no: the program is discount only, and no current Progressive clients are charged more. Non-clients will get a quote which they can take or leave.

Realistically, however, insurance works by averaging risk.

Those who have accidents are subsidized by those who do not. If all safe drivers, who rarely crash, start using Snapshot or similar devices, insurance rates for those who do crash and are not using the device would, inevitably, have to rise at some point. When that happens, it might be better to be classified in the safe pool than see skyrocketing insurance rates.

And it’s hard to argue that this wouldn’t be fair.

Image credit: Serg Dibrova/ShutterStock

Mini Connected is an optional feature that costs 250EU ($328). It requires an iPhone to provide a network connection (Mini has released a special app) to services like Aupeo’s web radio, Twitter, Facebook and traffic information. All services are accessible via the Mini’s dashboard, and messages can be read using voice output. About a quarter of the approximately 260,000 minis sold in the next year will be equipped with Mini Connected. Aupeo is providing four customized channels for Mini drivers — from Mini Space (latest from the music blogs) to Mini Cross (head-banging rock).

Aupeo aims to provide a one-stop-shop for hardware vendors who need an Internet radio service. It licenses all the music and generates localized metadata for the database of approximately 1 million tracks. The recommendation system is from the Fraunhofer Institute, inventors of the MP3 format.

AUPEO! Basic includes personal, mood (such as energetic or melancholic) and artist stations and is ad-supported. AUPEO! Premium adds higher quality streaming, access to all the Aupeo stations and no ads. Hardware vendors do not not pay for the application. Instead, Aupeo generates revenue from advertising and premium services.

Aupeo was founded in 2008, has 20 employees and raised its first institutional round of funding from several German VC funds, including Ventegis Capital.