The global economic downturn has posed a big challenge to carmakers' cash flows. To secure their core businesses, Daimler and BMW had planned to sell their Shared FreeNow travel business and ParkNow, a parking app service. Uber is interested in taking over FreeNow for 1 billion euros to boost its share of the travel market in Europe and Latin America, according to people familiar with the matter.

      Daimler is ready to put Uber up for sale, while BMW is hesitant. Oliver Zipse, BMW's CHIEF executive, is said to remain bullish on the future of mobile travel, preferring to sell a stake in Free Now to keep the other for the future, rather than a full acquisition of Uber.

             In 2019, Daimler and BMW teamed up again to merge their more fragmented mobile travel businesses into a joint venture called Your Now, which included Free Now, which Uber wanted to buy. Park Now, the parking business of BMW and Daimler; And car-sharing platforms such as Share Now.

       In fact, the global car market is uncertain, many car companies have abandoned the mobile travel business, began to slim down. In 2019, Ford Motor suspended its shared-mobility business. Gm also shut down Maven, its car-sharing business, in early 2020. Now it is up to Daimler and BMW to decide.