Startup Bounce Wants to Support a Future Without Car Ownership

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People who get rid of cable television are called cord-cutters, but a new company is planning for a future where we cut car ownership.

Bounce is a startup that wants to make it easier for people who choose to only use public transit and ride-sharing vehicles.

People without their own car have a more difficult time moving larger amounts of cargo. Someone with their own car can load it up with furniture and large items.

Currently, Bounce is starting off help travelers and tourists who use Airbnb to store their luggage at hotel concierges and other partner locations. However, the Bounce customers will not have stayed at those hotels. This is a common service in high traffic tourist cities in Europe. Now Bounce brings this to New York, San Francisco and Chicago and other cities.

Nextbigfuture readers who want to use their service for storing luggage can use this link and receive 10% off.

Nextbigfuture interviewed Bounce Cody Candee who described a larger vision where they will move beyond tourist luggage storage. They will enable a logistical system for moving luggage or any items between Bounce locations. This will enable shoppers or business commuters using transit and ride sharing to drop off at one location and pick up at another. They can drop off where they were shopping or working and then pick up near their home.

27 thoughts on “Startup Bounce Wants to Support a Future Without Car Ownership”

  1. Yeah, when I was in rural Russia they had a lot of big covered areas that vehicles would drive into. Then people would get in and out of the vehicles effectively inside (sometimes underground) and then you’d drive outside again.
    The idea was that during the bad weather you’d never be outside yourself.
    This was in mining facilities where big constructions and large underground caverns were well within the design space. What poor farming areas did I’ve no idea.

  2. Such as wearing suitable clothes etc. I don’t know what they do in rural Russia, but the bigger cities have well developed subway networks from the soviet era. Don’t know how well they’ve maintained and expanded them since, but AFAIK they’re still very popular there.

    P.S. I’ve heard that in Moscow they’ve started using a lot more cars recently due to western influences or some such. Now they’re stuck in massive traffic jams every day.

  4. Majority where? In the US? The majority of urban dwellers most everywhere else is already living in apartment buildings.

    With good city planning, one can have pretty good quality of life living in an apartment building. Nice living space, large yard (usually shared, but I don’t see that as a big deal), easy access to parks, public services, commerce, etc. I don’t see much lost compared to a single-family house. You could even add a community garden space if you’re into gardening.

    Of course, it’ll cost you to have the good stuff, but so will a single-family house (though I’ll concede that a house may be cheaper in some more distant areas).

  5. Perhaps in some near/distant future (depends on your POV for population growth projections) apartment high-rises may be socio-economically/environmentally/whatever preferrable to single-family houses, but good luck getting a majority today to agree.
    Especially those families in houses. Can’t see them giving up what’s obviously their preference (else why would they be in a house instead of an apartment?).

  6. Hmmmm let me see if I can make a list of all the problems with this retarded concept: Nope, too long… However, I’ll just say I love my car; I don’t care to find out how well it would be treated and cared for if people who have no “Pride of Ownership” were allowed to use it. Google, “Tragedy of the Commons” to find out how “No Ownership” works out. They figured this out about 300 years ago….

  7. Bounce is the first I have seen to identify this very real challenge. If their implementation is good, it’s a great business model.

  8. Some of what’s considered “really bad weather” by our standards is “business is usual” in those countries. They have adaptations in place to deal with it.

  9. Preferable from a congestion and pollution point of view, first of all. Even if you assume 100% electric cars, there’s still the congestion issue. Cars take a lot more road space for the same amount of people moved. Depending on pricing etc, there could also be an economic advantage.

    But the key is it needs to be good. That means frequent enough, with a good set of routes, preferably dedicated lanes, etc. In most countries it’s just borderline good enough for a large number of people to use it reluctantly (if even that).

    > next thing you will say that “nice neat public dorm preferable to bunch of houses, apartments”

    Dorm no, but a good apartment high-rise is preferable – in some respects – to a bunch of single-family houses.

    (To be fair, both public transport and large apartment buildings also have disadvantages.)

  10. Finally, in really bad weather, stay at home, spend some time with your family or friends.

    So in Russia or Saudi Arabia they should just shut the entire country down for most of the year?

    There are reasons this would be a good thing, but good luck getting them to agree.

  11. Home Depot sometimes does a rental truck service for when you buy too much stuff to fit in your own car. I could see them hopping onto the cargo delivery UGV bandwagon to support that specific model.

  12. You may have meant that sarcastically, but it does have merit in the literal interpretation. For short distances, a walk would do you good. For medium ones, take a bicycle if the weather allows it. And not those electrical ones, you lazy f*s. For longer ones, or in bad weather, a good public transport system is preferable to a bunch of cars. Problem is, the public transport in most countries is bad. Finally, in really bad weather, stay at home, spend some time with your family or friends.

  13. How often is your taxi in that condition? All it takes is a set of internal cameras and some image recognition to automatically detect such conditions and route the car to the nearest cleaning service. The cameras will be needed anyway for security reasons.

  15. Move everyone into cities, take away their cars, take away their firearms, take away their freedom. Gravy.

  16. Post (or a courier) works just fine when you have a load of clothes or similar that you want to transport to a location in a few, to several, days time.

    I suspect that posting my shopping home from the supermarket is going to result in some steaks and milk that isn’t really in the freshest of conditions by the time I get them.

  17. Compared to how the comment system on this site often functions, this is currently above average so let’s not mess with what isn’t (unusably) broken.

  19. We don’t need cars. Cars are so 20th century. 19th century acutally, if you want to be precise. And no Uber. If you can’t get on board with taking a train or trolley then walk. It will do your lazy *ss some good.

  20. My rent a car has arrived… and the last person who used barfed all over the insides. So glad I don’t have my own car.

  21. There’s already a service available, the US postal service. On several occasions, I’ve mailed gear to my destinations, or home when finished with it.
    Consider, the postal service existed long before the advent of automobiles, so it’s not surprising it is useful when not using one. Why reinvent the wheel?

  22. Ok that sounds nice for the city folk BUT. Also what about all those times you have to have a car LIKE RIGHT NOW.

    Lots of other questions but I think this will just end up a new Uber type program.

  23. I think an Uberized moving company would be a great idea. I see people outside of Costco loading up cabs so there seems to be a need.

  26. Forget cars….All you need to do is map the real world into minecraft and then my son can handle it from there… when u move that stick figure man that looks like a bad pixelated robot games from the 80s in 3d… it moves a real robot in the real world…

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