By Jack Cumming

Residents in senior living seldom need to drive. Nevertheless, many residents, including me, like to keep a car to have the convenience of being able to jump in and drive off at the whiff of a whim. That is increasingly a problem with newer cars.

Dead Battery

The “auxiliary” battery in modern cars must be recharged regularly. Short drives aren’t enough. If you leave the car for over a day or two, a jump-start will be needed to get the electronics going. This is a challenge for residents.

One solution seems promising. If cars were available for rental on demand, the residents wouldn’t need to have their own cars, and the facility would have another business opportunity. We’ll elaborate on that after we share the nub of the problem.

Learning the Hard Way

This is a lesson that I’ve learned the hard way. A year ago, I bought a 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid, a top-rated car. Everything was terrific for about seven or eight months. Then, one day, we went to drive to the doctor’s, and the car wouldn’t start. Panic, followed by Uber to the rescue. That painful incident started a learning process with several lessons.

  1. Toyota Roadside Assistance, at least where we live, is provided by AAA. We didn’t know that. They don’t show up particularly prepared to address Toyota issues. It took two calls before a responder had the needed jump-start kit to get the car going.
  2. The Toyota dealer tested the system overnight and then concluded that the driver, moi, is the problem, not the car. You’re a failed driver unless you drive often enough and far enough to top up the minimal 12-volt auxiliary battery.
  3. Toyota dealers, at least ours, no longer provide loaners or courtesy drop-off and pick-up services. Car owners have to make their own arrangements to get home or to work. More than the cost is the time lost getting rides. It’s a hassle.
  4. When the problem recurred, I went directly to AAA, and that was much more efficient since they got the needed information directly without having to go through Toyota.
  5. “Fool me once, shame on [Toyota]. Fool me twice ….” After the second time, I ordered a jump-start kit from Amazon. This 2024 model Toyota now needs a jump-start every time we use it.

Incidentally, the Toyota challenge might have been avoided with one of two engineering solutions. One would be to up the capacity of the 12-volt auxiliary battery to be sufficient to hold a charge for a longer period. Lithium iron phosphate batteries seem promising. The other would be to include a small “jump-start” battery near the fuse box with a “granny switch” on the dash to jump the hybrid system when the smart key is for naught. The Toyota problem is well-documented.

Although our experience with Toyota may seem extreme, the resident dead battery challenge is not. Most residents use their cars so seldom that ownership makes little sense. For residents, most of the time, the car sits idle and unused, so an alternative to car ownership could be both cost-effective and welcome. These underperforming new car technologies make this even more compelling.

Transportation

Many providers now offer ride-sharing services as part of their resident amenities. Drive-yourself car-sharing is a natural extension of that existing service. Providers already have insurance for their transportation fleet, so self-driving cars could be a natural.

Moreover, Uber and Lyft now supplement these provider transportation services for high demand or unusual resident requests. A car rental extension can do the same for self-driving. Just recently Uber introduced car rentals accessible through its app.

Unfortunately, the Uber car rental service is currently strangely clunky. You have to book an Uber ride to the car agency to pick up the car, and when the car rental is complete, you have to Uber ride back home. That makes three transactions out of what should be one.

Here’s an example. Say you need a car for a week and a day to drive to a seven-day cruise. The cost for the car is $35 a day, totaling $280, which might come up to $400 with all the extras that car agencies assess. The bookend Uber trips might be $20 each, bringing the total to $440.

Why doesn’t Uber just quote a seamless $440 for the whole package? That makes the whole thing as cost-predictable as Uber ride-sharing. Such a simple way to make car renting nearly as convenient as car owning. That could be a game-changer.

Meeting the Need

Senior living is at its best when it improves residents’ lives more than if they remained on their own. Recognizing changing car needs can be a part of that. As my experience with new car technologies has shown, the challenges of seldom-driven cars are only getting worse. Senior living providers can be the solution.