Visitors to San Antonio now have an easy and environmentally friendly way to get around. UFO Drive, a rental company with an all-electric fleet, has "landed" in Alamo City, according to a release, and is ready to beam renters up — as long as they give 48-hour notice.
Cars can be picked up from the San Antonio International Airport "or anywhere within the TX Loop 410," made easy by a remote process that walks users through the pickup process on their phones. The service is completely contactless, which comes in handy for travelers who don't want to wait in lines, hear long spiels, or visit during office hours.
The down side, as detailed in this overall favorable review of an Austin-to-Houston trip, is really up to the user: Can you pay attention to the how-to emails, or do you need someone there to show you the ropes?
The following has been reproduced from CultureMap Austin, as published on February 1, 2023.
This Tesla rental service got me from Austin to Houston, despite my best efforts:
Reader, my car was stolen. I know that’s not a cool note to start on, but it’s the truth. A few months ago, my white Hyundai Elantra was recovered on Ben White Boulevard with an egregiously ugly, half-finished paint job and a deathly rattle in the engine. This put me in a vulnerable position, not just for getting around (thanks, CapMetro), but for falling in love with cars way outside my price range.
UFODrive (stylized UFODRIVE), a self-service car rental company with an all-electric fleet, must have sensed my predicament, because a publicist probed my inbox with an offer to borrow a sleek Tesla X or Y for a weekend trip. The timing couldn't have been better, and not just for my Austin transport needs, but because the CultureMap Austin team had a Houston meeting to attend — an excellent excuse to hop in a new ride and try out the service.
This rental company has seven locations in the United States, but only one in Texas so far, meaning round trips would be necessary to return the car. (The website does not allow a multi-city return, even if you’re up for a very long drive.) Previously exclusive to Europe, the company's United States leg is catching up. Their website boasts 20 million “clean miles” driven by renters, and more than 2 million kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions saved.
Ideals aside, the most obvious draw to this kind of service — the self-service exchange — held up, although it does present its own challenges. Everything happens through the UFODrive app. Pickup and drop-off were easy with no lines, no salespeople, and most importantly, 24/7 service. The downside, for a chaotic traveler, is everything takes some time to figure out if you don’t read everything very carefully (a simple solution, really, but easier said than done.)
Nothing was confusing for more than a few minutes. The phone app locks, unlocks, and starts the car. It only took a few tries to realize the vehicle turns itself off automatically when in park with no one inside. Everything from the online booking to reporting pre-existing damage was an easy step-by-step form. (The car was immaculate, anyway.)
My biggest problem was learning how to operate a Tesla Y on intuition alone — I wouldn’t have needed rental agency staff to teach me about just about any gas-powered vehicle, but I would have liked to get a quick rundown for my first time operating this sleek spacecraft. Maybe a more tech-inclined driver wouldn’t have taken a full minute to figure out how to put the thing in drive. I wouldn’t know; there wasn't one available.
Thankfully, these machines are intuitive once a driver starts trusting the "push buttons and find out" techni
