Avis Budget Group and Ford have announced that they have teamed up in Europe to make renting, upgrading, and extending the duration of a car rental possible directly from a smartphone. The Ford connected vehicles allow Avis customers to use the Avis app to do all those things and to return their rental cars with a tap.
Ford commercial solutions is providing an embedded telematics solution for the cars that offer an easier way for Avis Budget Group to connect vehicles. More than 4,000 Ford vehicles in the Avid Budget Group fleet are expected to be connected by the end of 2019 and another 10,000 vehicles by the end of 2020.
The connected Ford vehicles will provide telemetry data in real-time, including mileage, fuel level, and vehicle condition updates. The idea behind the telemetry is to allow faster turn around for customers and to allow the fleet managers to process the information more quickly.
Ford Commercial Solutions uses the Transportation Mobility Cloud from Autonomic to connect the vehicles. The data flows through embedded modems inside the vehicles and is relayed to the fleet owners internal IT system or telematics service via TMC. Avis Budget Group says that it is committed to delivering 100 percent new vehicle connectivity in Europe by the end of 2020.
Autonomic recently teamed up with EV maker Ayro for integrating the TMC platform into its small three-wheel EVs. The little EVs the automaker builds are good for a range of about 50 miles and a top speed of 50 mph. TMC can provide geo-location tools and proximity-based communications.
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