Waymo, Apple Deals Bolster Rental-Car Firms for Ride-Sharing Age - Bloomberg

Interesting automotive times

"Old-school rental-car agencies may have a road map to prosper in the age of self-driving taxis after all.

Avis Budget Group Inc. agreed to manage a fleet of 600 self-driving Chrysler minivans for Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo autonomous technology division. In addition, Hertz Global Holdings Inc. will lease Lexus sport-utility vehicles to Apple Inc., which will convert them to self-driving cars, said people familiar with the matter Monday. 

Those deals, while small in scope, comforted investors enough to push up shares of both companies by 14 percent, a remarkable one-day showing for an industry whose stocks have long been out of favor. The reason for the optimism: Calling on the likes of Avis and Hertz shows that Apple and Waymo are willing to partner with traditional players instead of driving them into oblivion. The big technology companies may want into the self-driving vehicle business, but they don’t necessarily want to build, own or shine the metal."

Waymo, Apple Deals Bolster Rental-Car Firms for Ride-Sharing Age - Bloomberg