The service is available in California, Oregon and Washington state right now. The initial selection isn't surprising. BMW is already familiar with car sharing in Oregon and Washington thanks to its ReachNow service, while California is a hotbed for new transportation services.

BMW pitches this both as an acknowledgment of changing times and a part of its ongoing push into mobility services -- it took full ownership of DriveNow the same day as the lease announcement. It knows that leasing is likely to decline as ridesharing and self-driving cars take hold, and wants to make a lease more attractive to those people who do want their own car. And it's reasonable to presume that this could help BMW in the near term by convincing some people to lease cars they otherwise couldn't afford.