---
title: "Flemo"
description: "Flemo (AUDI, 2011/12): Owners share their car only with circles of people they trust, on their terms"
url: "https://www.sugar-network.org/en/projects/flemo-2011-12/"
lang: "en"
---

# Flemo

**Owners share their car only with circles of people they trust, on their terms**

_No more trust issues: the customer decides with whom, when and under which conditions he wants to share his car._

- **Corporate partner:** [AUDI](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/partners/audi/)
- **Cohort:** [2011/12](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/projects/cohort/2011-12/)
- **Theme:** [Mobility & travel](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/projects/themes/mobility-travel/)
- **Type:** Service concept
- **Key fact:** < 1 % of people shared cars at the time
- **Universities:** [University of St. Gallen](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/universities/hsg/), [University of Modena and Reggio Emilia](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/universities/unimore/)

## Challenge

Audi wanted community services around mobility and connectivity that bind customers to the brand. Fewer than 1 % of people shared cars, and peer-to-peer sharing worked poorly.

## What the team learned

People hesitate to share a car with strangers. Asked directly, acquaintances were surprisingly willing to lend their car for a weekend, because people quickly sort others into circles of trust.

## What they built

Flemo lets owners invite people into circles of trust, each with its own prices, rules and insurance settings. A FlemoBox in the car handles the calendar, usage tracking and payment, backed by a website and app.

How it evolved:

1. Parking-sharing prototypes showed owners want to know who uses their space and to switch sharing on or off.
2. Workplace car-sharing tests: owners asked for control, companies for cost savings, which led to circles and the FlemoBox.

## Results

- An insurer consultation recommended a dedicated Flemo insurance with a 500 euro deductible.
- A five-day website design competition drew 39 entries.

## Impact

Presented at Stanford in June 2012. The FlemoBox architecture belongs to partner Re-Lab, with a patent pending.

## Full project text

Flemo sums up to be the „Dell“ of car sharing; For each car sharing element the customer puts together his personal solution and therefore is able to define his private car sharing community. Each customer his own car sharing community.

### Challenge

The understanding of mobility undergoes central changes and new mobility concepts are being produced. Beside this major change the community thinking is shifting as well due to new possibilities nowadays. Audi as a key player in the mobility industry wants to tackle two main topics: Mobility and Connectivity - both strategically relevant for Audi. By developing community services, a lock-in effect, which persuades a (potential) costumer, through the services itself, should occur.

### Solution

The final solution is Flemo. Flemo is a car sharing solution that combines community, connectivity, and mobility topics altogether. Mobility, thanks to the shared cars, connectivity since the users have to be connected to each other and to the cars in order to get the information about which car is available and where. Finally, a community of different people is supposed to interact with each other in order to share their cars. The two most central needs the team was able to sort out of most of the divers prototypes were the needs of flexibility as well as the need of control. Hand in hand with the need of being in control of one’s belongings / one’s life comes the trust-issue. The team found out that the current car sharing solutions do not fit everyone’s needs. Single households, families, students (roomies), neighborhoods, as well as startups, SMEs and large companies have a common need: to be able to enjoy flexible mobility.

### Impact

However, for a fitting car sharing solution, different requirements come together with this common need: Does one want to bring the private car into the sharing system? How should the exchange be organized? Who is responsible for insurance, fuel or parking costs? How long and when can the cars be used / shared? With whom? Meet with renters to give them the key? How to organize the availability? People are comfortable - Car Sharing isn´t. FLEMO is a car sharing solution that is pretty different. It tackles the above-mentioned problems.

## Sources

Summarised by the SUGAR editorial team from the team’s project page and final documentation.