Lyft is offering car rentals straight from their app

Lyft is getting into car rentals. The ride-hailing company announced that it’s launching a rental service available in its main smartphone app that will work pretty much just like traditional car rental companies, starting in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, California. The company will also provide renters with two $20 ride credits to help cover the cost of taking a Lyft to and from the pickup and drop-off points. Lyft is trying a couple things at launch beyond those ride credits to lure renters away from incumbents. For one thing, Lyft will allow people as young as 22 to rent, provided they have a valid driver’s license. There are no mileage limits, and Lyft says it will only charge the “local market rate” for gas, meaning renters won’t have to worry about filling up their cars before they drop them off. Cars can be taken for as little as one day or as long as two weeks. At launch, Lyft is making the Volkswagen Passat sedan and the Volkswagen Atlas SUV available to rent in San Francisco. The Mazda 3 sedan and Mazda CX-5 SUV will be the launch cars in Los Angeles. The company is aggressively pricing the rentals, too, with the Passat in San Francisco available for as little as $35 per day (though Lyft says pricing may change based on things like when people rent).