A rental / car-share (RCS) vehicle access and
management system and method, in some embodiments, utilizes barcodes, QR codes (or NFC / RFID), GPS, and a
mobile app coupled with a
wireless network to enable customers to bypass the reservation
desk and
pickup and drop off reserved RCS vehicles using a
mobile phone, tablet or
laptop. The QR code, RFID, or NFC communication with the mobile application allows for identification of the vehicle by a mobile application, which, if authorized, can access the vehicle via a temporary access code issued by remote servers. The remote servers and / or mobile application communicates with a control module that plugs into the on-board diagnostics module of the rental / car-share (RCS) vehicle and includes a host
processing unit with a processor, an
accelerometer, data storage, a GPS with internal
GPS antenna; a
wireless modem with internal antenna, and
CAN bus transceivers connected with the processor, and a
USB programmable interface.