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Connected car rentals will transform the travel experience

Connor Mason
  • Connor Mason
  • May 18, 2015
Connected car rentals will transform the travel experience

As mobile comes to envelop every aspect of our travel experiences, from planning our trip to navigating the airport, services that assist in getting from A to B need to transform to make common processes more accessible. With the explosion of connected car technologies making the process driving more integrated with the smartphones we already carry, a natural extension of new mobile trends is to reinvent the car rental.

Rental cars, too, will become connected cars.

Today, customers can reserve cars from one of many rental car companies to be ready for them as soon as they arrive at their destination. Typically, customers need to interact with service representatives to confirm the reservation and get access to the lot, where they can choose the car they’d like from a limited range of options.1 In its current form on mobile and web, rental cars behave like OpenTable: users reserve an option that suits their needs and confirm the selection’s availability with an actual human being once on-site. In the future, rental cars will feel much more like a vending machine: select your preferred option, select a method of payment, and receive that item in short order. With mobile, these unnecessary steps of human intervention will disappear.

Rental cars, too, will become connected cars. As these technologies become increasingly prevalent and increasingly affordable, it will be in rental car companies’ best interest to integrate new connected features that assist with fleet management and enhance the customer experience. The vehicle’s passive awareness of its surroundings, of approaching Bluetooth devices, and of its own mechanical health will accelerate the travel processes that millions of people rely upon.

Connecting the rental car will reshape and accelerate the travel rituals that millions of people rely upon.

Choosing a rental will become exponentially simpler for the consumer, and more secure for the rental car company, as well. Companies like Zipcar have emerged as a convenient alternative to traditional rental car providers, by offering robust mobile apps that facilitate the reservation and discovery of rentals for users in both familiar and unfamiliar locales. But for years, Zipcar still required a physical NFC card—called a Zipcard—to activate Zipcar vehicles upon reservation. This solution, while novel in the sense that users retain and reuse their card, is truly no better a user experience than leaving the keys on the dashboard—in order to truly provide convenience, rental car companies need to leverage the objects users already carry with them.2

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In the future, Zipcar and its competitors will have access to Bluetooth proximity awareness built into smartphones, and also to the NFC antennae that facilitate Google Wallet and Apple Pay. As users approach their reserved vehicle, it can unlock for their device based on proximity networking or near-field communication, circumventing the need for human intervention or tedious keys and cards throughout the process.

But connecting the rental car has other benefits for consumers than saving them from forgetting keys. When CarPlay and Android Auto become more widespread, and rental car companies begin updating their fleets with newer models that feature built-in connected car systems, user customization and preferences can extend beyond the car in their garage at home. Settings for communication, multimedia, and more can already transfer between vehicles through users’ smartphones. And as CarPlay and Android Auto become increasingly capable, and gain access to wider berths of in-car systems, new preferences can be unlocked and shuttled between vehicles—air conditioning settings, seat adjustments, and mirrors that align themselves with your position. When the rental car is connected, any car feel like your car.

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When the rental car is connected, any car feel like your car.

Finally, the common rituals associated with rental car journeys—like checking the odometer and gas levels to ensure accurate costs—can be made easier by connected cars’ awareness of their own mechanical statuses. When the car understands its mileage before and after a reservation, and reports that information via Bluetooth or OBD-II to the rental company or the user’s device, the data associated with rental car travel can be more accessible and useful than ever before.

Drivers whose miles and gas expenses are tax-deductible can receive accurate data throughout their trips, no matter which car they’re driving. Rental companies can provide proactive reminders for customers to top off before returning, informed by users’ fuel levels and geo-location relative to the drop-off point. Connected cars are poised to revolutionize how we drive, and there’s no reason our driving on vacation should be left out of that equation. There are some unique considerations that make connecting the rental car both efficient and useful for drivers and rental companies, and these go beyond upgrading to a mid-range sedan.


  1. For subscribers to premium programs, there are certain efficiencies that expedite this process and help travelers get on their way sooner. With mobile, these efficiencies will come to every rental car customer.
  2. Zipcar’s more modern implementations are in line with this future. But the industry as a whole remains out of step with this vision.

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