China is ambitious. Chinese government has ambitious targets. Being the world leader (volume wise inarguably, technology wise still arguably) of global automotive industry is not sufficient. They want to be trend setter for the coming future mobility trends. In China, since market size is immense, every global player exists and compete with each other to be the surfer who catches the coming big wave. One of them from Mercedes Benz introduced TO GO mobility application to the Chinese Customer. In the article below, i write about my experience with TO GO as a user.
TO GO evaluation proverb:
when somebody does a good job, i simply admire it. i do so independent of the fact that if that person is my competitor, and/or admiration may not be in my best interest. because, i have seen doing so is fair as well as the only way keeping in touch with reality. the history is full of smart people and their efforts which could have been added on to the civilization, are either stolen or not appreciated somehow wasted at the end. i decided not to contribute to that waste with my life. therefore, i appreciate good work. for me this is quite straight logic. one can question at this point, should i also appreciate proactively my competitors when they perform good too? i think also yes. because if we are not doing the right thing that i believe we should, i do not know a shorter and a smarter way of showing to my own people where we should go and what we should do than simply appreciating someone else's good work. simple it is.
REGISTERATION: TO GO asks you to deposit CNY 1500 through online payment channels ALIPAY or WECHAT wallet. then you will need to upload a picture of your driving license. in few hours, you will be registered an eligible to drive a TO GO car.
ACCESSIBILITY: TO GO cars are located i n every other corner of the big cross roads. only in chaoyang there are dozens of these points, in Lianmaqiao, there are three parking points. at each point, there are multiple cars are parked. those park points are in the streets and free of charge. therefore, drivers do not have to pay anything for parking. those parked cars are seenable and rentable by the online application. TO GO cars also marked and painted seperately with company logo on the doors and therefore easily distinguishable from the other cars which are parked nearby.
BOOKING A CAR: is only possible through the application and only once the user is completely registered (pls refer to registeration here). as soon as user is clicked on any parking point on the application map, such as any of the three parking points in Liangmaqiao, the cars available in that parking spot are listed. There are different brands and models are available with a majority of them being SMART and CITROEN C3. in case there are multiple SMARTs or C3s parked in the same spot, each car is still distinguished with the plate number. once the user choose the car to rent, it is enough to click on a single button and the car is reserved for 15 minutes for that user to pick up the car. A user can three times reserve and not pick up within a day. then the application prohibits the same user for the same day to reserve any cars. Once the reservation is complete, the application asks the user to open up the BLUETOOTH. the user can be KMs away from the car as well as just standing by. As long as the car is not matched with the BLUETOOTH of the user's device, the car will not unlock the doors. i think this is pretty cool speciality.
TO PICK UP: so as the user, up to now you are registered in the app, located the car on the map, reserved it online, arrived to the reservation point, found the car physically and unlocked the doors by clicking a button. from then on, the app starts to charge you till the moment you park the car in one of the marked parking points on the map and lock the doors with the button in the app. Also as soon as the doors are open, the 15 MINs count down to pick up the car stops and all available cars on the app map turns in to possible parking spots to end the rent.
TO DRIVE: as soon as you get in the car, you notice that the car keys are hanged on a long plastic rope, next to the driving wheel. also there is a USB charging cable for IPHONE and ANDROIDs available in the car since the powered mobile phone is essential to finalize the rent. All available cars are internal combustion engine but not electric cars with a full fuel tank so that you do not have to pay or worry about fuel. Besides, all available cars are automatic transmission so users do not have to deal with manual gearbox.
TO PARK: it is true that you cannot park the car wherever you want but in the same pick up points marked on the map. The GPS tracks the user during the drive and also recognizes the final parking point. as long as the car is parked in the marked areas along with the other TO GO cars, the application permits to end the rent by clicking the end button on the app.
TO PAY: charging starts with a minimum fee of RMB 15 as well as RMB 1.88/KM and RMB 0.28/MIN charged. To put the costs in a perspective, in Beijing local taxis are opening up the taximeter from RMB 13 with an 3 KMs inclusive price but then on they charge RMB 2.3/KM and rmb 2/5MIN. so for long distances as well as jammed traffic conditions, TO GO charges users less than the taxi drivers. for example, i paid TO GO RMB 28.80 for driving 6.7KMs in 34 MINs on Monday morning. The identical drive would cost around RMB 36 with a taxi in Beijing. BONUS: there is further RMB 10 discount.
