Case study: Zemtu enables safer car sharing through contactless rentals

Zemtu’s contactless rental software allows car sharing businesses to offer safer, more convenient rentals during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

About Zemtu

Zemtu is a car sharing software provider based in Dornbirn, Austria. The company’s founders met through their shared interest in green technology, electric mobility, and software development. In 2015, they started Zemtu⁠—which is an Austrian dialect word for “doing things together”—to provide car sharing businesses with the software and tools to make sharing cars simple and enjoyable.

“Our mission is to care for the world and make it a good place for generations to come,” said Zemtu CEO and CTO Dominik Bartenstein. “By helping reduce the number of vehicles on the road, we aim to reduce overall pollution and resource consumption.”

Zemtu’s challenge

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, it became imperative for car sharing businesses to reduce renter anxiety and safety risks through contactless rentals. Initially, this required Zemtu’s customers to install aftermarket hardware devices in their vehicles. These devices allowed Zemtu to let renters locate and unlock vehicles directly from their phones.

But properly mounting and unmounting hardware can be daunting and time-consuming, especially for small businesses. Another drawback of hardware devices is their cost, which impacts the ability of operators to effectively scale their business. They are also error-pone and may require hardware providers to calibrate the device before it will correctly return the right data points.

Solution

Zemtu decided to integrate with Smartcar to reduce the need for hardware devices altogether. The Smartcar platform allows Zemtu to easily locate, lock, and unlock vehicles with simple API requests. Car sharing businesses can connect their vehicles with just four clicks from their Zemtu account and offer contactless rentals without the complexity and cost associated with traditional hardware solutions.

Results

Using Smartcar’s technology, Zemtu made contactless car sharing more affordable and accessible for smaller businesses and even private individuals. Car sharing companies like edrive in Switzerland, CARUSO in Austria, and Autonapůl in the Czech Republic have been using Zemtu’s Smartcar-powered solution to offer safe, contactless rentals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With Smartcar, we were able to achieve our goal to provide an excellent car sharing experience to car sharing operators and their customers,” Bartenstein said. “Smartcar is empowering us to make car sharing safer, more convenient, and more affordable for a broad range of businesses and individuals. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved so far and can’t wait to see the impact our solution will continue to make during the pandemic and beyond.”

Vehicle brands, logos, and model names belong to their respective trademark holders and do not indicate endorsement of or affiliation with Smartcar or Zemtu.

Photo by Paavel Liik on Unsplash