What If You Didn’t Need A Key To Start Your Car?

“So What?” you may be asking. “Lots of cars have keyless remote starting devices.”

True, but if some kind of RFID/iPhone/Android/app thing let you reserve, rent, access, and return cars without going to any particular place or meeting with someone? What if you could just park at your office and your rental ended there. What if you were the next driver of that vehicle and your app showed you exactly where that dropped off car was so you could pick it up, then it gave you access to drive it from Orlando to Tampa overnight, but return it to the Tampa airport, where you were scheduled to fly off to a meeting (without returning to Tampa to return the car). See the bigger picture?

Several rental car companies are outfitting their fleets with this kind of technology. (Each brand calls it something different. Enterprise = WeCar. Connect = Hertz.) It will be interesting to see where they, and their customers, take it.

This is just another example of how good experience design yields more of what everyone wants. By utilizing the car more, fleets get smaller and costs go down. Also, convenience for drivers goes up with a greater array of rental options and fewer restrictions. Service design is the name of the discipline that handles the details. Let’s see if the car rental companies can keep customer service levels high, fairly set customer expectations, deliver on their promises, and make money. I think they can!

Thanks to Jay Boehmer of Business Travel News for his post today, 6/12/11, which brought this idea to my attention. You can read his full article here.