In early 2020, Car2Go/ShareNow left Austin for good
Until early 2020, some AUS regulars would land at Barbara Jordan Terminal, walk out to the nearby lot, and grab a Car2Go to drive themselves home. One r/Austin user said it regularly beat Uber on price from the airport. That setup is gone now, so treat any old blog post mentioning AUS Car2Go as outdated.
Car2Go’s free-floating model meant you could park the car anywhere in the Austin home zone, not just at a fixed rental garage near 3600 Presidential Blvd. That flexibility is exactly what made it a cheap option for solo riders leaving AUS. With ShareNow pulling out, there’s currently no comparable free-floating car-share option based around the airport.
The old routine was simple: deplane at Barbara Jordan, follow signs to ground transport, walk a few hundred yards to the designated car-share area, and unlock a car with the app. Drive time from the airport to central Austin was roughly 20–30 minutes via TX-71 and I-35. Payment was per minute, so traffic on 183 or I-35 could quietly add several dollars to the total.
Today, if you see “Car2Go” or “ShareNow” listed under AUS ground transport with a journey time or cost like “0.50” or anything equally vague, treat that as a data artifact, not a real option. The only self-drive choices tied directly to Barbara Jordan Terminal now are traditional rental counters on-airport and off-airport shuttles, plus personal car pick-ups at the rideshare lanes.
For current planning, compare rideshare (Uber, Lyft) from AUS against a one-day rental from the on-site companies at 3600 Presidential Blvd, especially on late-night arrivals after 23:00 when surge pricing hits. If you used to rely on Car2Go, build an extra 10–15 minutes into your schedule for either the rental car shuttle or the TNC pick-up zone, and ignore any map pin that still shows a ShareNow logo near the terminal.