With Zipcar, Robin Chase introduced car-crazy America to the concept of non-ownership. Now she's flipping that model with Buzzcar, which lets you rent your own auto to your neighbors.
Why you should listen
If she weren't a proven entrepreneur, you might imagine Robin Chase as a transportation geek, a dedicated civil servant, endlessly refining computer models of freeway traffic. If she weren't such a green-conscious problem-solver, you might take her for a startup whiz. Case in point: In 2000, Chase focused her MIT business training on a car-sharing scheme imported from Europe and co-founded Zipcar, now the largest car-sharing business in the world. Using a wireless key, location awareness and Internet billing, members pick up Zipcars at myriad locations anytime they want one.
Now Chase has launched Buzzcar, a car-sharing service in France with a twist: instead of a fleet of green Zipcars, the service lets users share their own cars and make money off their unused capacity. Call it peer-to-peer auto rental.
Read this insightful interview with Chase about starting a business and raising kids (including a supermodel).
What others say
Robin Chase has already changed the way we drive, but she's not satisfied. Now she wants to change the way we live as well.
Robin Chase’s TED Talks
More news and ideas from Robin Chase
Ideas
Robin Chase’s new ideas? The Zipcar founder on how drivers could generate wifi and why we need more sharing platforms
November 20, 2013
Is sharing the solution to our global challenges? Twice, Robin Chase has stood on the TED stage and offered powerful visions for a green, and shared, transportation future. At TED2007, the Zipcar founder suggested that car sharing could be the solution to global warming, while also helping drivers without cars. She also posited an even […]
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Could drivers generate WiFi? A Q&A with Robin Chase of Zipcar
November 20, 2013
Is sharing the solution to our global challenges? Robin Chase says yes. Read about the founder of Zipcar's vision for future collaborative economies.
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11 fascinating “peers incorporated” businesses
December 17, 2012
[ted id=1632 width=560 height=315] Robin Chase, the founder of Zipcar, is proud of her company’s emphasis on sharing. But now, a decade later, “it’s really time to push the envelope,” she says in today’s talk filmed at TEDGlobal 2012. Chase’s latest venture, Buzzcar, provides an online platform for people in France to rent cars from […]
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