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Old 24th January 2019, 16:42   #1546
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

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Originally Posted by moralfibre View Post
Can someone confirm if Zoomcar still has governors on their Hexa fleet? I am renting one for a Bombay airport run end of this month and don't want to be stuck at 80 on the expressway. Usually 100-110 is my comfort spot for cruising.

Also worried about their cleanliness aspect since the car appear to be badly kept. Don't want the family to suffer due to dirty and dusty cars on my way back.
There are good chances of not getting a speed governor if you choose old Zoomcar models like the Scorpio or the Swift.
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Old 24th January 2019, 23:38   #1547
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Zoom Car: Self Drive Rentals in India

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Originally Posted by sidpunjabi View Post
The sliding is possible if the tyres haven't been changed. What was the tread like? With 62,000 kms on the ODO, it's highly likely that the factory fitted tyre will have a shallow tread. This could result in the slipping you mentioned.
Tread depth looked ok, but I must say I did not check in detail. I even missed noticing that front tyres were of different makes. CEAT on one side and Apollo on other, which I see now on the photos I had clicked.
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Old 25th January 2019, 12:08   #1548
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

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Originally Posted by SilentEngine View Post
Tread depth looked ok, but I must say I did not check in detail. I even missed noticing that front tyres were of different makes. CEAT on one side and Apollo on other, which I see now on the photos I had clicked.
Apollo Acelers are the stock tyres that come with the i20. In my experience - I have found that while the executives inspect the internal equipment and the external bodywork, they rarely inspect/ register the tyre tread and depth.

Few members on this forum have also reported getting into accidents due to weak tyre grip on Zoomcar's cars.

I usually self inspect it as part of my checklist while taking the car. Most of the time though, the treads are found to be shallow or nearly bald.

So, I'm not completely surprised to hear that they have different tyres on their cars. This could also be a reason behind you experiencing slippage.
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Old 25th January 2019, 12:55   #1549
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

Has Zoom discontinued all 'luxury' vehicles from their Bangalore line-up? Cannot see the GLAs or 320D any more. Maxes out at Fortuner from what I can see.
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Old 25th January 2019, 15:45   #1550
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Zoom Car in Sikkim Restricted areas

I am planning to rent zoom car from Siliguri for a week long trip to Sikkim.

Based on information I came across, I came to know that for attractions in North and East Sikkim (e.g. Lachen, Gurudongmar, Lachung, Gnathang Valley etc.) where we need permits, it is issued only to those commercial vehicles which are registered in Sikkim.

Can anyone please confirm that this is indeed correct? In that case, we will need to give up with self-drive option.

Our draft route is : Bagdogra - Kaluk - Borong - Lachen - Lachung - Bagdogra.

Thanks.
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Old 5th March 2019, 20:57   #1551
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

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Originally Posted by Rajeevraj View Post
I happened to come across this article on Zoomcar deploying Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) from a company called Netradyne on their fleets.

Did anyone who booked recently have this device installed in the car? It is a windshield mounted multi camera setup, so should have been very visible.
Me and my flatmate just rented a Baleno for late night airport drop, and this car has a unit with the same name as the one in your article - Netradyne driver-i. Has 4 lenses, facing the 4 directions. Didn't check for mics and all. I tweeted at Zoomcar's handle about it and you can find their response here

Frankly, I hate it. I don't like the idea of someone snooping on my conversations. Could have used a multi channel unit with a camera mounted on the rear windshield, rather than in the cabin. Zoomcar says interior facing camera is disabled, but I'm not sure how to verify the claim. Also, if you see the pic, it's too big. The way it's mounted, it blocks a good portion of your visibility.
I'm in favour of the tech if it helps safety. But I'm doubtful as to how a camera facing the cabin helps in this.
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Old 5th March 2019, 22:39   #1552
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

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Originally Posted by pratik1992 View Post
Me and my flatmate just rented a Baleno for late night airport drop, and this car has a unit with the same name as the one in your article - Netradyne driver-i. Has 4 lenses, facing the 4 directions. Didn't check for mics and all
I'm in favour of the tech if it helps safety. But I'm doubtful as to how a camera facing the cabin helps in this.
Thanks for the note. Had taken a car myself that had this unit. Having done some study on this, can safely say that there is no Microphone in these devices(Does have a speaker that can sound alerts). The internal camera is part of the concept of driver monitoring system. It captures video and using deep learning and AI techniques, identifies driver distraction and fatigue items like holding mobile phone, not wearing seat belt, closed eyes , yawns. Head tilt away from front road etc. This data can be used to provide real time alerts to driver on driver distractions and fatigue. In the case of such fleet operators, if used, can be used for driver scoring along with the data from the external cameras which can capture stuff like collision warnings, sudden lane change etc .
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Old 5th March 2019, 23:08   #1553
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

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Originally Posted by Rajeevraj View Post
The internal camera is part of the concept of driver monitoring system. It captures video and using deep learning and AI techniques, identifies driver distraction and fatigue items like holding mobile phone, not wearing seat belt, closed eyes , yawns. Head tilt away from front road etc. This data can be used to provide real time alerts to driver on driver distractions and fatigue.
That's good to hear. Although it must use a very wide angle lens if it wants to capture the driver's images/video properly to build such a model. I believe it should've been tilted towards the driver for it to be completely effective. But I'm no expert in optics, I'll leave that to the engineers who designed. I just want to believe that someone isn't watching me creepily in some dark room

Another point to note is that this is a ZAP car. Wonder what the people who drive it regularly think about it.
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Old 24th March 2019, 23:14   #1554
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

Had rented a Zoomcar Swift in Pune for three days from the airport. Finished a three day 900km drive around Mumbai and Pune and returned the car without any mishaps.

The good:
  • Car was fairly new with just 13.5kms on the odo
  • Car was pretty well maintained with no damages or broken parts. I have got newer cars earlier which had been abused badly.
  • This was type 3(current) Swift VDi with ABS and Airbags, while earlier type 2 Swifts in Zoomcar were Ldi with only ABS and stone age features
  • My plan did not include fuel. For a distance allowance of 1150kms, Zoomcar was charging around 5k extra if I wanted a fuel included tarrif. Given how frugal the car was, I used ~2500 rupees worth of fuel and the MID showed an average FE of 24kmpl in mixed usage
  • They have greatly improved the check in and check out process compared to my earlier trips with Zoomcar. The mobile application is a class apart and has a detailed checklist for the car. We can indicate damages on individual panels as well as end the trip in the same way, with a message confirmation coming immediately. Earlier, the trip start and end had to be manually updated. The app also shows the start ODO, allowable ODO while return, fuel level during start and time remaining in the booking. Brilliantly done.
  • My car did not have the Netradyne tracking device, but when I entered the Mumbai Pune expressway, they sent me a message saying I entered an accident prone zone.
  • Airport pickup and drop were flawless
The Bad:
  • The single most annoying thing in this trip was the speed limiter installed on the car. I might sound like a mad man at this stage, but its definitely a piece of junk. My car had a limiter which claimed to be limiting to 80kmph. They even sent me a message before the start of the journey telling the same.
  • I set off and once I reached the highway, I accelerated and neared the 80kmph mark, expecting some sort of protest from the car. Nothing happened, and I momentarily felt happy and assumed that the limiter was removed. At the same time, in fifth gear the MJD opened up and started picking up speed. My happiness was short lived. As soon as I touched 90, BAM and the engine is choked and starts losing power. Two seconds later, the speed drops to 89 and the engine wakes up, begins to rush. Yet again, it chokes at 90. So then I said Hi to the limiter, the most rubbish implementation of what is called a safety device.
  • Now, why should I call a speed limiter rubbish? Its not the concept, but the implementation that is rubbish. Being an aftermarket device, it shuts down the accelerator pedal when the speed reaches 90kmph. This gives a jerky behaviour if the accelerator pedal is kept pressed all the time. Which means, you have to maintain a steady speed of around 85 to not face these jerks by inviting the limiter to show its presence. Keeping the car at this speed requires a constant watch on the speedo, which is again not so safe. This behaviour was a pain and I wish this gets revoked.
  • In the Dzire tour, the factory provided speed limiter works wonderfully. No matter how much the accelerator is pressed, the car still stays at 80 and does not have this switch ON/OFF cycles. I would have minded even if our car had the same system(which on the Tour is in the ECU itself. Its like a cruise control set at 80kmph. \
I somewhat got used to the 85kmph mark, but overtaking had to be planned well. I saw other self drive cars zipping past me. Hope Zoomcar addresses this situation.
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Old 25th March 2019, 08:50   #1555
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

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Originally Posted by audioholic View Post
[*]I set off and once I reached the highway, I accelerated and neared the 80kmph mark, expecting some sort of protest from the car. Nothing happened, and I momentarily felt happy and assumed that the limiter was removed. At the same time, in fifth gear the MJD opened up and started picking up speed. My happiness was short lived. As soon as I touched 90, BAM and the engine is choked and starts losing power. Two seconds later, the speed drops to 89 and the engine wakes up, begins to rush. Yet again, it chokes at 90. So then I said Hi to the limiter, the most rubbish implementation of what is called a safety device.
Were you fined by them when the trip was closed by ZoomCar?
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Old 25th March 2019, 09:33   #1556
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

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Originally Posted by ashishy View Post
Were you fined by them when the trip was closed by ZoomCar?
Nope. The 80kmph limit is mandated by the government for yellow board vehicles. Zoomcar policy still stands at 125kmph, after which they have a fine of 2500 and a max limit of two instances of overspeeding after which they will blacklist the member.

Due to the presence of the government rule on these cars, the Zoomcar speed limit does not come into picture here. Since they had not charged any security deposit from me, there was no refund and neither did I have to pay any outstanding dues.
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Old 25th March 2019, 10:06   #1557
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

Completed my 7th Zoomcar booking. Mahindra E2O plus this time again. I happened to scratch corner of the bumper as i failed to notice low level railings near parking spot. Zoomcar didn't charge me anything but guilt is still there in my heart.
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Old 25th March 2019, 11:06   #1558
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

Any feedback on the cars and about the service of Zoom at Bagdogra / Siliguri ? I have never used Zoom before ( was always Myles thus far). I plan to rent a car for the drives to Darjeeling / Sikkim. Thanks.
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Old 2nd April 2019, 15:44   #1559
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

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Originally Posted by rajatmakar View Post
I am planning to rent zoom car from Siliguri for a week long trip to Sikkim.

Based on information I came across, I came to know that for attractions in North and East Sikkim (e.g. Lachen, Gurudongmar, Lachung, Gnathang Valley etc.) where we need permits, it is issued only to those commercial vehicles which are registered in Sikkim.

Can anyone please confirm that this is indeed correct? In that case, we will need to give up with self-drive option.
rajatmakar, did you do / plan this trip already ? Any guidance ?



Quote:
Originally Posted by jkrishnakj View Post
Any feedback on the cars and about the service of Zoom at Bagdogra / Siliguri ? I have never used Zoom before ( was always Myles thus far). I plan to rent a car for the drives to Darjeeling / Sikkim. Thanks.
Did you find out more about the options ? Thanks

Last edited by lancer_rit : 2nd April 2019 at 15:46.
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Old 2nd April 2019, 20:21   #1560
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re: Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India

I had completed a booking at Calicut two weeks ago. The car that I booked was Ford Freestyle, but later it was changed by Zoomcar to Elite i20 since the booked car met with an accident.

The pickup took a little time to check with all the required fields in the app, as it was my first pickup through app. Driven around 250km, and the performance was really good, except for the moments at which the speed limiter kicked in. That jerking above 80 kmph was .

The drop-off was easy and the refund of the deposit took around 3 days to credit. Overall happy with the service provided by Zoomcar Calicut.
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