Getaround, the peer-to-peer car sharing company that won this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt NYC startup competition, this morning announced that it is poised to make its debut in the greater Portland metropolitan area by February of 2012, following an initial launch at Portland State University on the 1st of January.
To facilitate the launch, Getaround was selected by the Federal Highway Administration to participate in a joint initiative with the city.
The collaboration includes a grant of $1,725,000 in federal funding. According to the press release, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) grant in Portland marks the first federal grant ever awarded for peer-to-peer car sharing.
Starting today, Portland commuters and car owners can begin signing up for the ‘Airbnb for cars’ (oh yeah) on the Getaround website.
In addition, Getaround says it will collaborate with the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium to research the dynamics and impacts of p2p car sharing.
Currently, Getaround is available in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area, including Mountain View, Palo Alto and Berkeley, as well as limited areas within San Diego.
Getaround provides a peer-to-peer carsharing marketplace that enables car owners to rent their cars - from Priuses to Teslas - to a community of trusted drivers by hour, day, or week using just their smartphones. Car owners invest huge amounts of time and money into an asset they barely use. The average car is idle 92% of the time, while potential drivers walk past block after block of underutilized cars. We are here to connect the dots… to help people...
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