The $105 million Uber Carshare dream, inspired by Australian startup Car Next Door, is over

Shared mobility giant Uber is killing off Uber Carshare, its global experiment in hiring neighbour vehicles, after less than three years.

The service will shut down in Australia in three weeks on September 12, while the US and Canada will close on 9/11.

The experiment began in January 2022, when Uber paid $105 million to acquire 10-year-old peer-to-peer car rental platform Car Next Door.

At the time, more than 1.1 million people had booked a trip with Car Next Door over its decade in business.

Nine months later, while Uber’s US-based CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was visiting Australia, the business was rebranded as Uber Carshare. It went on to launch in the US in mid-2023 in an experiment that lasted just 15 months.

While it offered longer a longer-term alternative to point-to-point rides or Uber’s e-bike brand, Lime, Uber was not the barnstorming pioneer in the carshare space, with Sydney veteran GoGet, as market leader, which owns its fleet, alongside other rival brands available in most capital cities include Flexicar, owned by the rental company Hertz, Singapore’s Drive lah – operating here as Drive Mate and Popcar.

Uber told car owners in an email this week announcing the end of the service that “increasing costs and operational challenges associated with insurance, thefts, and vehicle repairs” led to the change

“We are shifting our focus from peer-to-peer car-sharing to partnering with scaled car rental companies through products like Uber Rent,” it said.

It came just two weeks after the business had reassured them any decline in earnings during winter “is primarily due to the broader rental market seasonality” and they expected usage to pick up again from September “based on historical trends”.

At this point in time, the app has yet to stop potential rentals in Australia after September 12, and the company has yet to warn users of its pending closure

In March during the Australian Formula 1 grand prix, Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas, whose partner is Australian cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, starred in an ad for Uber Carshare featuring a turquoise Holden ute with a meat pie warmer, wool steering wheel cover, “budgie smuggler drying system” on the front bumper, “mullet aeration technology”, rod holders and thong rack. It had the number plate “2ND CAR” and was part of a promotion that briefly let Uber users hire it.

The video has been viewed more than 900,000 times, but not enough, it seems to save the former Car Next Door under its new owner.