There are some companies here in the Netherlands that rent electric cars. You can pay a subscription (there are various payment models actually) and you can pick up any car that is near you (you can see the available cars on the web). It’s an interesting solution and I happened to share a ride last week.

What I found impressive was the high tech overall experience. You use a card to unlock the car (size of a credit card). When you arrive to your destination it uploads information (probably updates the car’s location). It has radio, GPS and all that stuff in a touch screen. But what really gave the feeling of a carefully designed idea was an icon on the touch screen of the car that said “SOS”. Tapping that icon turns off the radio, calls directly the car company support line and you can talk to them directly. No messing around with phones and all that. When the call is over, it even turns the radio back on again. I saw this in action, when we had to call the support line to complain because we had received a parking ticket, while the company said that its cars are allowed to park anywhere for free. I’m thinking of trying it myself one day…