The car rental process is never an easy one, first, you have to find the location in which you can pick up your car after making a booking online and then run an inspection of the car as well as collect your car keys. This makes the whole experience a mix of online and offline. Continental and AVIS aim to reduce as much friction as possible.
Both these companies are piloting out a completely keyless solution for cars where users can use an app on their smartphone to unlock and start rental cars. The technology runs on Continental’s Key-as-a-Service where only minimal hardware changes are required.
“By partnering with Avis Budget Group, we are able to bring this innovative technology, backed by the deep automotive know-how of Continental, to new customers,” said Ralf Lenninger, head of Continental’s intelligent transportation systems, in a statement to CNet. “We look forward to working with Avis Budget Group to explore and further develop the efficiencies and future possibilities that this solution provides.”
So far the pilot has only been announced in Kansas City and hopefully if it proves successful, it can be rolled out to all AVIS centres around the world.
