Hi everyone. Welcome to Shift, a podcast about mobility. I'm Pete Bigelow,

your host and reporter at the Automotive News. I'm thinking a lot about transportation

startups today. There were dozens showcasing their products and technology

when I was at the Move America Mobility Conference in Austin late last month and

when I go to the Auto Tech Council Science Fair in the

Bay Area later this week there'll be dozens more on attendance. I can't promise

that Zipcar was the very first mobility startup. Maybe that honor belongs to inventors from past centuries.

But in this 21st century era of mobility, Zipcar might be the first startup that mattered.

How the climate for transportation startups has changed

over the past 20 years is just one of the topics I discuss with Robin Chase,

the Zipcar co-founder and serial entrepreneur,

who is my guest on this week's episode.

She's probably done more to open our collective eyes to transportation business

models beyond automobiles and car ownership than anyone I can think of. Robin and I talk about the early days of Zipcar, finding joy in transportation, how to build livable

cities with climate change looming and much more.

Without further ado, I'm pleased to bring you

this conversation with Robin Chase.

Robin, it's great to have you on the podcast today.

Welcome.

It's my pleasure.

I look forward to it.

Perhaps we can kick this off with a little bit of a history lesson.

...