Car sharing is a service where users temporarily access shared and pay only for the time and distance they drive. It's often based on a mobile app, making the experience effortless: find a car on a map, walk up to it, tap your phone, and the doors unlock.
In this lesson, we'll follow the complete user journey from registration to trip end, revealing the technology and operations that power each step. You'll see how hardware, software, and data-driven operations work together to create that seamless experience.
Step 1: Joining the Service (The Digital Handshake)
Before booking their first car, customers must become trusted members of your service. Users create an account in the app, upload their driver's license, and often take a live selfie. Your central platform uses specialized services to verify everything: comparing the selfie to the ID photo and checking the license's authenticity.
This "Know Your Customer" (KYC) process is essential for meeting insurance requirements and managing liability. Modern systems grant approval in minutes, enabling spontaneous adoption. Get this process wrong and you'll face problems: a weak process exposes you to fraud, while a slow one drives customers away.
Once approved, the system creates a digital profile, links a payment method, and establishes the trusted connection needed to ensure only qualified drivers access your fleet.
Step 2: Finding and Booking a Car (Pinpointing the Asset)
When users open your app, they see a map of available cars powered by telematics. A telematics unit is an intelligent device in each vehicle that acts as a two-way communication hub, using cellular connection much like a mobile phone to send data to your platform and receive remote commands. Most services use specialized hardware like the INVERS CloudBoxx.
In rare cases, integrated systems from the vehicle manufacturer (OEMs) are also used to automate rentals.The telematics unit sends critical information: precise GPS location, fuel level, or battery state of charge. This lets customers choose vehicles with enough range for their trip. GPS accuracy is particularly important. Poor GPS data creates frustrating experiences when customers start searching for vehicles that are supposedly nearby but nowhere to be found.
When a user reserves a car, your backend platform confirms availability and changes the car's status to "reserved," hiding it from other users. The customer receives confirmation that the car is held for them, typically for 15 minutes.
Step 3: Accessing the Car (The Remote Unlock)
At the reserved vehicle, customers use their smartphone as the key. Tapping "Unlock" sends a command to your backend platform, which verifies the reservation and forwards the unlock command to the vehicle's telematics unit. The unit instructs the car to unlock doors and deactivate the engine immobilizer. This successful unlock officially starts the rental and records initial mileage and fuel level for billing.
Offline Access Solutions
Cellular connectivity isn't guaranteed in underground garages. Robust systems include offline methods like Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which sends a temporary digital key to the user's phone. When near the car, the phone communicates directly with the telematics unit via Bluetooth. Some operators also offer physical RFID cards as backup.
Step 4: Driving the Car (The Monitored Journey)
During the trip, the telematics unit sends real-time data like GPS location, speed, and distance. This serves multiple purposes. The primary function is gathering data for accurate billing based on duration and distance. Live tracking also provides security, ensuring you always know vehicle locations. Some operators use this to identify reckless driving behavior.
Geofencing: Your Virtual Boundary
A geofence is a virtual boundary you define for your service area. Your platform uses live GPS data to monitor whether vehicles travel outside this zone. If someone crosses the geofence, the system alerts both driver and operations team, keeping vehicles within designated territory.
Some operators disable live tracking for privacy reasons, calculating costs only from time and odometer readings at trip start and end. While this approach can be simpler, it involves significant trade-offs. You lose valuable data on how and where the fleet is used, and cannot enforce geofencing rules in real time.
Step 5: Ending the Trip (Closing the Loop)
Users tap "End Trip" when parked, triggering an automated checklist. For free-floating services, the system confirms the vehicle is parked within your business area. It checks that the ignition is off and doors are closed. This is critical for preventing fraud like ending the rental while leaving a door open to re-enter later.
Once conditions are met, your platform sends a final command. The telematics unit locks doors, re-engages the immobilizer, and sends final data such as end time, odometer reading, and fuel level. The trip closes, billing begins, and the vehicle switches to "available" for the next customer. This seamless transition is the key to maximize fleet utilization.
Step 6: Keeping the Fleet Ready (Data-Driven Operations)
Customers expect every car to be fueled, clean, and functional. The telematics unit reports critical vehicle health data like fuel level, battery charge, and diagnostic trouble codes.
This data flows into your fleet management platform, creating automatic alerts. If fuel drops below 25% or a tire pressure warning appears, the system flags the vehicle. Tasks can be dispatched to your street team for refueling, cleaning, or maintenance. This transforms fleet management from reactive scrambling into proactive efficiency, ensuring higher availability and customer satisfaction.
Conclusion: A System of Seamless Integration
The "magic" of accessing a car with a tap results from three core pillars working together: the hardware (telematics unit bridging digital and physical), the software (backend platform and mobile app), and data-driven operations (using information to keep the fleet ready).
A smooth user journey reflects how well these elements integrate. For entrepreneurs entering shared mobility, understanding and mastering this integration is the fundamental basis for building a scalable, profitable service.