Coastr’s vehicle rental software has integrated with Smartcar to allow keyless entry, creating a contactless car rental experience for customers.

With Smartcar’s API, Coastr uses a single software-based integration to connect vehicle rental operators with connected cars across multiple car brands, according to a blog report by Smartcar. The partnership will enable the delivery of more connected mobility technology, which is a need in the vehicle rental industry.

“Smartcar is helping Coastr achieve our company’s mission by supplying technology to enable the integration of Coastr’s services with our app and connected cars,” said Biswajit Kundu Roy, CEO of Coastr.

To build a better car rental experience for the future, Coastr turned to technology to bridge some of the systemic gaps in the rental ecosystem: clunky customer experiences, legacy technologies, unorganized inventories, and fragmented operational data.

Coastr uses artificial intelligence and connected mobility solutions to help vehicle rental companies offer accessible options for customers in real-time. With Smartcar’s API, Coastr communicates with vehicles through the cloud to remotely provide travelers with a rental vehicle in pick-up locations that are more convenient for them, according to the blog.

“We at Coastr believe that everything can be API-enabled in the future,” said Kundu Roy. “With Smartcar, we found the perfect partner to help us deliver our vision of making vehicle rentals contactless and convenient.”

Rental operators can connect their vehicles to Smartcar through the “Coastr for Partners” mobile app. With a few clicks, they are taken to the Smartcar Connect authorization flow, where they can choose to give Smartcar permission to access vehicle data. In this case, the permission to lock and unlock car doors, according to the blog.

“One of our customers is using our Smartcar-powered product to enable contactless rentals to prevent customers from standing in queues and to provide 24/7 rentals,” said Kundu Roy. “This helps them save time and effort having to be present with customers for them to start booking.”

In addition to keyless entry with Smartcar, car connectivity has helped Coastr locate stolen vehicles, immobilize vehicles to prevent theft, enable predictive maintenance, and develop data-driven commercial fleet insurance for fleet operators.