How to book a car with HERE WeGo

The HERE Maps app was relaunched last week as HERE WeGo with a new direction and a bevy of new features. We’re keen to show them to you in more detail so you don’t miss out.

One of the most important is the addition of car-sharing services as a new mode of transport. These are ad-hoc, by-the-minute car hire services, booked using an app or in a browser, for cars parked in local streets which you can unlock with a PIN number or using the app.

As Patrick Weissert told us last week – we’re in the midst of a second mobility revolution, with new car sharing, ride-sharing, and other ‘mobility on demand’ options popping up weekly. Adding these to the HERE WeGo app – and the flexibility to add more – helps us stay relevant to modern metropolitans.

For our initial launch, we’re working with Car2Go to provide the means to locate and book cars right from the HERE WeGo app. The company currently operates in a wide variety of major cities worldwide:

USA: New York City, Portland, Columbus, Seattle, San Diego, Twin Cities, Denver, Austin, Washington; Austria: Vienna; Canada: Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver; China: Chongqing; Germany: Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Rheinland, Stuttgart; Italy: Florence, Milan, Rome, Turin; Netherlands: Amsterdam; Spain: Madrid; Sweden: Stockholm.

As the app develops, we intend to add more service providers, and of course, Car2Go fully intends to broaden the reach of its own service.

Here’s how it works.

If Car2Go operates in your city, then that option will show up in the list of initial travel choices right after you enter a destination. The details show how many people the car can fit, the approximate total hire charge, the length and ETA of the journey, and even how much fuel is in the vehicle.

You can either pick that car right away, or tap on the third tab (the car with a key above it) to see more options for car-sharing services. This will let you choose other cars and – when available – other providers.

When you choose a route powered by Car2Go, the map shows your walk to get to the car you’ve chosen. You can see alternative hire choices on the map, too, so you can keep your options open. Then, once you’ve singled out a car, you see your onwards route once you are inside the vehicle.

When you pick a Car2Go vehicle from the map, then you can start hiring it right away, or you can reserve that vehicle for a later time. Choosing either of these buttons will open up the Car2Go app with the correct information pre-filled so you can complete the transaction and get started as soon as you please. Switch back to HERE WeGo to continue on your way with full turn-by-turn navigation.

Let us know if you’ve tried out Car2Go yet – and how it worked for you.