Flexible Booking Of A Shared Vehicle

1 . A method for providing flexible booking of a shared vehicle, comprising:

providing, on a mobile device, an interface to allow a user of said mobile device to make a reservation of a shared vehicle by selecting a date said user desires to reserve the shared vehicle;

allowing said user of said mobile device to select a location to locate at least one shared vehicle on said date;

receiving, by said user on said mobile device, a list of vehicles proximate the location selected by the user, and a indication of available times for each of said vehicles; and

making a reservation, by said user on said mobile device, of a particular one of said vehicles for a particular time period on said date during which the particular vehicle is available.

2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising allowing said user to change said reservation.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein said allowing said user to change said reservation comprises changing a start time of said reservation.

4 . The method of claim 2 wherein said allowing said user to change said reservation comprises changing an end time of said reservation.

5 . The method of claim 2 wherein said allowing said user to change said reservation comprises changing a duration of said reservation.

6 . The method of claim 1 wherein, in response to said selecting a date said user desires to reserve the shared vehicle, said user is provided with a list of vehicles and an indication of available times for each of said vehicles.

7 . The method of claim 1 wherein said receiving, by said user on said mobile device, a list of vehicles proximate the location selected by the user, and an indication of available times for each of said vehicles includes a favorite vehicle of said user.

8 . The method of claim 7 wherein said user is able to reserve said favorite vehicle at an available time.

9 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable code thereon for providing flexible booking of a shared vehicle, the medium including instructions in which a computer system performs operations comprising:

providing, on a mobile device, an interface to allow a user of said mobile device to make a reservation of a shared vehicle by selecting a date said user desires to reserve the shared vehicle;

allowing said user of said mobile device to select a location to locate at least one shared vehicle on said date;

receiving, by said user on said mobile device, a list of vehicles proximate the location selected by the user, and an indication of available times for each of said vehicles; and

making a reservation, by said user on said mobile device, of a particular one of said vehicles for a particular time period on said date during which the particular vehicle is available.

10 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 9 further comprising instructions for allowing said user to change said reservation.

11 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein said instructions for allowing said user to change said reservation comprises instructions for changing a start time of said reservation.

12 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein said instructions for allowing said user to change said reservation comprises instructions for changing an end time of said reservation.

13 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein said instructions for allowing said user to change said reservation comprises instructions for changing a duration of said reservation.

14 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 9 further including instructions wherein, in response to said selecting a date said user desires to reserve the shared vehicle, said user is provided with a list of vehicles and an indication of available times for each of said vehicles.

15 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 9 further including instructions wherein said receiving, by said user on said mobile device, a list of vehicles proximate the location selected by the user, and an indication of available times for each of said vehicles includes a favorite vehicle of said user.

16 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 15 further comprising instructions wherein said user is able to reserve said favorite vehicle at an available time.

17 . A computer system comprising:

a memory;

a processor;

a communications interface;

an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the communications interface; and

wherein the memory is encoded with an application providing flexible booking of a shared vehicle, that when performed on the processor, provides a process for processing information, the process causing the computer system to perform the operations of:

providing, on a mobile device, an interface to allow a user of said mobile device to make a reservation of a shared vehicle by selecting a date said user desires to reserve the shared vehicle;

allowing said user of said mobile device to select a location to locate at least one shared vehicle on said date;

receiving, by said user on said mobile device, a list of vehicles proximate the location selected by the user, and an indication of available times for each of said vehicles; and

making a reservation, by said user on said mobile device, of a particular one of said vehicles for a particular time period on said date during which the particular vehicle is available.

18 . The computer system of claim 17 further comprising allowing said user to change said reservation.

19 . The computer system of claim 17 wherein, in response to said selecting a date said user desires to reserve the shared vehicle, said user is provided with a list of vehicles and an indication of available times for each of said vehicles.

20 . The computer system of claim 17 wherein said receiving, by said user on said mobile device, a list of available vehicles proximate the location selected by the user, and an indication of available times for each of said vehicles includes a favorite vehicle of said user and wherein said user is able to reserve said favorite vehicle at an available time.