What Silicon Valley Sees in Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Enterprise, a 60-year-old company that owns and rents more cars in the U.S. than anyone else, is gaining newfound attention in Silicon Valley and Detroit, judging by conversations with tech executives lately. The reason is simple: Enterprise is one of the few companies that can manage large fleets of cars at scale. That’s a skill likely to be in demand as more companies launch ride-sharing services using self-driving cars.

Today, drivers for firms like Uber use their own cars but in the future, ride-sharing companies are likely to own the vehicles. And many might prefer to outsource the job of taking care of the cars. “Owning and operating a vehicle fleet is not for the faint of heart,” said Sean Behr, CEO of Stratim, which develops software for managing fleets of cars for companies such as General Motors.