The boss of online car sharing platform Drive Mate says it has had a 39 per cent increase in vehicles listed on its platform since news broke of Uber’s plan to close down its Carshare division last week, and that investment in better technology like facial recognition will resolve some of the difficulties Uber faced getting the business model to work.

Drive Mate and Turo remain the only major alternatives for car sharing in Australia, after Uber shocked local operators by announcing its platform would be turned off on September 12, in favour of its car rental firm partnerships. The move reduced transport options for consumers, but also left Australians who had bought small fleets of cars to rent out, scrambling to find alternate ways to make money off their investments.