Moovel debuts in US, marking another mobility shift for Daimler

The owner of the stately Mercedes-Benz brand is getting downright granola with the merger of a couple of startups from two of the US's crunchiest cities. Daimler AG is bringing its Moovel mobility-services division to the US. Moovel North America has been formed with the acquisition and merger of the Austin, Texas-based ride-sourcing company RideScout and Portland, Oregon-based mobile-ticketing service GlobeSherpa.

A far cry from selling Benzes to well-heeled gentry in the suburbs, Daimler is looking to capitalize on the growing urban market, noting in a statement Thursday that, "Daimler recognizes that increasing urbanization combined with the rise of the sharing economy has presented a new way to create transportation services for commuters of tomorrow." That's corporate speak for, "Hey, not everyone can lay down $70,000 or so for an SLK, so here are some options for the rest of you."

Specifically, Moovel North America is developing software called RideTap, which makes it easier to find the closest available transportation option at a particular moment. The strategy represents a step beyond Daimler's Car2Go car-sharing division, which also marked a move into more environmentally friendly transportation but is still rooted to the private automobile (that division, which deploys Daimler's Smart ForTwo vehicles, took the not-so-green step last month of removing electric vehicles from its San Diego fleet).

Germany-based Daimler is also following US counterpart General Motors into the ride-sharing fray dominated by tech-heavy companies such as Uber and Lyft. GM, which earlier this year created a new car-sharing service called Maven, also recently moved towards the ride-sharing market by acquiring some assets of the defunct ride-sharing service Sidecar and investing a half-billion dollars into Lyft. Take a look at the Moovel Group's press release below.





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