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Canvas
p/canvas-6A simple alternative to car ownership
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David Gold

Canvas - A simple alternative to car ownership

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An online platform that offers month-to-month car subscriptions. Get a car without committing to a multiyear financing. All cars come with insurance, maintenance, warranty coverage, and roadside assistance.

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jeremy carson
name makes zero sense to me.
Kat Nguyen
@thejeremycarson Agreed... no relevance. Hope they explain it sometime soon!
Noah Kim
@thejeremycarson What's not to get? J. E. Rhoads & Sons in 1702, started producing canvas for conveyor belts and flat belts for use in factories. Henry Ford is widely known as the father of the modern assembly line. Assembly lines commonly use conveyer belts back in the olden days, made of Canvas. Canvas->Assembly Line->Ford->Ford Focus->DriveCanvas.com. Duh.
Ned Ryan
Maker
@katnguyen @thejeremycarson Ha. Well, we chose “Canvas” because we wanted folks to be able create the form of car ownership that works for them. We also wanted to give ourselves some latitude to create different products as the space evolves.
Lauren Holliday
@thejeremycarson so negative! I think this is awesome!
Zach Dubos
this would be great... ...if it had more than just used ford focuses.
Adam Hollander
@zduboss guessing Ford funded them to get into new alt vehicle ownership like GM has and made that part of the requirement to close the round. Think it's interesting but not sure what the target customer and use case/geography is vs like Zipcar. Is it just the convenience of the delivery?
Josef
@zduboss why not rent a car from a real car rental like sixt.com then? One more benefit: you usually get a very new car. What this is, is a used car rental company dressed up as a startup...
eddie patzsch
@josef_moser that's what I was thinking. However, even at crappy Sixt it's going to be more than $450/month and won't include insurance
Ned Ryan
Maker
@zduboss We wanted to launch with only a few models to simplify our operations, but we’ll add more over time.
Ned Ryan
Maker
@mwtbrowser @zduboss our target customer is one that doesn’t want to or can’t commit to a multi-year financing but wants a car 24/7. Using a Zipcar daily (or even just for the weekends) becomes prohibitively expensive. We see ourselves much more as a substitute for car ownership than a Zipcar/Getaround/etc.
Ned Ryan
Maker
@gavid_dold, thank you for the hunt! We just launched Canvas on Friday and are now live in the Bay Area. Canvas offers a month-to-month subscription to a car that includes insurance, maintenance, and warranty coverage. Our goal is to create a simple alternative to the car ownership that everyone is used to today. The transportation landscape is changing dramatically (and talked about constantly), but we don’t think anyone has been able to tackle the longstanding problems associated with owning a car. We think the process of buying, owning and selling is overly complicated, and we want to make it seamless and simple. We’ve launched with a small initial batch of cars (Focuses and Fusions), but we’ll constantly be adding more inventory. Check back in the future if you don’t see something you like right now. Please feel free to ask questions or provide feedback! I put together some thoughts on the problem we're trying to tackle - check it out (http://bit.ly/2pRlvHq)
Josh Matz
I really like the idea of hassle-free car purchasing. I purchased a car from Beepi a year ago before they shut down and the difference between these online ones and purchasing in a dealership is night and day (literally, Beepi delivered our car when we were available which was after work when the sun was down). This seems to be fitting in with that hassle-free mindset but for leases on preowned cars. I initially thought their pricing was really high but since we're talking about no down-payment and included maintenance/warranty, I think on the surface it looks to be a decent deal. I've always been skeptical of car manufacturer warranties/maintenance plans, so I'm curious how it would play out since "You are responsible for any damage to the car that is in excess of normal wear and tear." Now, like Zach said, just waiting for them to have more than Fords!
Ned Ryan
Maker
@joshmatz we couldn’t agree more! We’ll certainly face challenges communicating the all-in cost of our cars vs. traditional car ownership and that’ll be a constant work in progress. Thanks for the suggestion
John
Would suggest a split screen comparison of cost of ownership vs you guys. Like other commenters, thought pricing was high but now think it's justified. Came to that conclusion not on the site but from the comment section in PH. Might be a good idea to display that info in a hero image on product page.
Ned Ryan
Maker
@drwolanin Great suggestion! We’ll look to incorporate something like that soon.
Ryan Wilbanks
So it's like a more expensive lease?
Ned Ryan
Maker
@ryan_wilbanks we’re much more flexible than a lease because there’s no long-term commitment - Canvas can be cancelled at the end of any month. Also, our prices include insurance, warranty, and maintenance coverage. Plus, the price drops each additional month you stay in the car.
NaweG
Would sign up for this in a heartbeat if this were available in SA. Really like the idea that you go month-to-month, and could conceivably up or downsize depending on what you are doing.
Ned Ryan
Maker
@naweg, thanks for the love! Hopefully we’ll make it out to you sometime in the future.
Alex
Love this idea
Ali Ahmed
If they had manual transmission cars this would be all I'd use when I'm in the Bay Area.
Hayden Evans
Why is everything named "Canvas" or "Paper" these days?
Mitchell Geere
But there are only Ford Focus' on there. What would make this interesting is if I can say rent a car for a month I can't typically afford to own or maybe don't think is practical to own. Who wants to spend $400+ on a Ford Focus...? You could lease it for 2 years and pay less. I'm not bashing I love the idea, I have wanted it for a while but the execution is weak. When I rent cars I want something I can't already easily get or have. I have been dying to try out a Jaguar F-Type for a while now... Also your name makes no sense what-so-ever.