Continental and Turo to make car keys obsolete

Continental partners with Turo, a US-based online peer to peer car sharing marketplace, to bring instant mobility to users through the new application, Turo Go. A Turo member will now be able to book and unlock cars at the touch of a button through the smartphone application. This feature is meant to provide a seamless car booking experience to Turo users that don’t always have the time to deliver keys in person. Turo Go will be launched in Los Angeles during the LA Auto Show and expand to new markets in the coming months.

Continental’s Key as a Service (KaaS) aftermarket solution is said to offer a seamless user experience for secure vehicle access, start authorisation and accurate car data. This scalable solution eliminates the need for a physical key across a multitude of manufacturers and models. If preferred, KaaS is also offered as a solution which is already embedded into the vehicle's architecture. With this, the phone itself becomes the key. Turo claims that its hosts can now offer greater convenience to users than traditional car rental companies, with the majority making their cars available on-demand and via instant booking.

“We are pleased to work with Turo to offer our Key as a Service (KaaS) aftermarket solution technology to their growing customer base,” said Jennifer Wahnschaff, head of Intelligent Transportation Systems business unit at Continental. “With shared mobility becoming more universal, KaaS can enable a simple, customised and secure experience to millions of customers.”

“Today, we are pleased to launch Turo Go, which empowers guests to instantly book, locate and unlock cars from the Turo app. Turo Go brings us one step closer to achieving our vision of a world where you can access a car any time, anywhere, fueled by our vibrant community of trusted Turo hosts,” said Turo CEO, Andre Haddad. “With the launch of Turo Go, the Turo community can now choose between the widest selection of convenient ways to start a trip, including having a car delivered to a unique location, meeting with a fellow car enthusiasts for a key exchange, or kicking off a trip from the Turo app.”