Do any zipcar-like rental companies allow you to return the car to somewhere other than where you picked it up? Doing so obviously dramatically changes the complexity of reservations. It is a feature that more traditional rental operations can offer only because they have very large centralized inventories. Even so, they still have to orchestrate moving cars from popular destinations back to popular origins.
The proposed solution is definitely interesting, and I think it might be possible to make it workable, but I think it is a different order of complexity from the Netflix prize.
Just signed up for Car2Go.com in Vancouver, which launched here this month and offers one-way rentals.
Their model is per-minute pricing with an hourly cap.
You "return" it by parking it anywhere within a huge area (several square miles) that effectively makes up anywhere you'd be car-sharing anyways (living outside this area means you'd be pretty likely to own a car).
You find a car to rent with their android or iphone app, website, or by calling their 24/7 phone number. All cars are tracked using GPS.
Pretty sweet model that is a good substitute for taxis, assuming the car supply keeps up with consumer demand.
The proposed solution is definitely interesting, and I think it might be possible to make it workable, but I think it is a different order of complexity from the Netflix prize.