How to Build a Car Sharing App: Benefits, Features, and Technologies

Whether you are already in the car sharing business or just planning to enter it, having a mobile car sharing application is essential. According to Statista, 95% of total car sharing market revenue will come from online sales by 2029. Licensing a white-label car sharing solution could be a good starting point, but if you want to increase your market share, building a custom application is the best decision.

Before hiring a development team, it’s important to determine what type of solution you want to deliver and what features your customers expect to meet their demands.

In this article, we explore how you can benefit from a custom car sharing application, the main car sharing business models that exist, and what features you should consider for your solution. Apriorit specialists experienced in mobile app development and automotive industry software will provide you with helpful tips on which technologies to choose and ways to overcome potential obstacles.

Custom car sharing app development: business benefits

Car sharing apps allow users to rent cars for short periods of time from private owners or car rental companies.

While out-of-the-box applications aim to cover users’ basic needs, a custom car sharing solution allows you to implement features that align with your unique business demands and target audience’s expectations.

Let’s briefly explore three main business models for a car sharing app before we consider their advantages:

Although the benefits of custom car sharing app development vary depending on the business model you choose, we can outline a few universal advantages:

• New customers. Offering features needed by users allows you to engage new customers, retain current ones, and improve the overall user experience. 
• App scalability. Implementing a cloud architecture allows you to easily and cost-effectively scale your application according to business and user demands.
• Increased security. Custom solutions allow you to implement advanced security measures like two-factor authentication and data encryption to better secure customers’ personal data and provide reliable services.
• Ownership and control. By implementing your own car sharing solution, you will own all of your data and code and be sure that your business and user data is not transferred to third-party services. Moreover, you will be able to collect data on usage patterns to improve your app.
• Enhanced branding. A custom application allows you to better represent your brand. This can improve customer retention and increase brand awareness.
• Market expansion. Adapting your app to meet car sharing requirements of different countries and cities will let you increase your market share and grow your customer base. 

Once you opt to build a custom solution, it’s time to consider its business logic and scope of features.

How a car sharing app works

A car sharing app appears simple from the user’s perspective. However, what happens in the background? Below, we describe the basic steps a user should take to start using a car sharing service and what actions the system performs in response. The number of steps will depend on the car sharing operator, but the overall process will be similar.

Step	User action	Background operations
Register an account	To become a member of a car sharing program, a user needs to register via an app. Usually, this involves completing a form and submitting personal details, credit card data, and driving license information.	The application checks the information the user has provided to ensure the user meets membership requirements (age, driving experience). Once registration data is verified, the system creates an account and sends an email confirmation.
Sign in	Once membership is confirmed, the user can sign in to the app and use it right away.	When a user signs in, their account information is retrieved from the system and sent to the application, so they can view their profile and book cars. The app constantly syncs with the back end to keep car availability up to date.
Reserve a car	To reserve a car, a user chooses a car from the list, views its specs, and checks its availability and current location. Then, the user can reserve and drive immediately or schedule the reservation for a later date.	When a user requests a car, the system checks whether it’s available. Once the booking is confirmed, the system tells the vehicle about the reservation.
Access the car	When it’s time to drive, the user heads over to the car and uses their phone to unlock it. If a key is required, it is usually deposited in a car’s key holder; in other cases, the vehicle can be started without a key.	When the user tries to unlock the car, the system contacts the in-vehicle hardware to confirm they are the same user that booked the car. Once the vehicle knows the user has a valid reservation, the doors will unlock. The system starts recording trip information the moment the user enters the car.
End the trip	Once the ride is over, the user has to park the car, return the key back to the key holder, close the door, and end the trip in the application. Within seconds, the vehicle doors will lock automatically.	When the user ends the trip in the app, the in-car hardware checks whether the car is parked properly and makes the vehicle available to other users.
Post-trip	After the trip is completed, the user sees trip details in their account: the trip start/end time as well as the cost.	Once the trip is completed, the system receives details including trip duration and calculates the total cost of the trip. That amount is automatically billed to the credit card the user entered at registration.

At every step, it’s essential to provide users with a sufficient set of features to enhance the car sharing experience and ensure their safety. Let’s see what basic and nice-to-have features you can add.

Basic and advanced features of a custom application

A custom car sharing solution allows you to add different feature sets depending on business needs and user feedback. Let’s start with basic features that your application must include to power the admin panel and allow customers to use your car sharing service. Then, we’ll take a look at advanced features that will help to make your app stand out and enhance the user experience.

Basic features for users

While building custom car sharing software, it’s important to ensure that a basic set of features will let your users take a smooth trip and, in case of an emergency, get top-level support.

• Registration should be fast and easy. There’s no need to request all information from new users right from the start.
• User verification includes verifying identity documents and driver’s licenses through the Know Your Customer process.
• Sign-in options may include email, social accounts, Google and Apple accounts, and phone number.
• User profiles should display contact information along with preferred routes and payment methods and allow for adding and changing data as needed.
• Filtering options should allow users to search for and select cars by applying different filters, such as make, capacity, and fuel consumption.
• A booking system allows users to reserve cars both in advance and instantly.
• GPS integration helps users locate reserved cars and reach their destination.
• Payment integrations make paying simple and secure, covering payment methods like credit/debit cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers.
• Smart lock functionality enables keyless locking/unlocking of vehicles via the application. When a user requests to unlock a vehicle in the app, the in-car system confirms the reservation, then unlocks the doors. After the trip ends and the user gets out of the car, the doors lock again.
• Ride statistics allows users to see the duration of their ride and track their booking history.
• Push notifications notify users about the status of their reservations or about cars available near them.
• Customer support allows users to promptly resolve various issues occurred while on the road, before and after driving. Ideally, a car sharing app should offer 24/7 support.
• Enhanced security with features like secure login and two-factor authentication will increase protection of users’ data, which is paramount for every car sharing app. Our specialists can help you with this, as we have more than 20 years of experience developing secure solutions.
• Insurance is always included in the price of a car sharing service. Users can file insurance claims right from the app through an integrated insurance service. 
• Ratings and reviews will help your team collect user feedback to identify and fix weak spots of your car sharing service. In the long run, continual improvements can help you win customers and remain competitive.
• Communication tools allow users, administrations, and car owners to exchange messages.
• Cancellation options allow users and car owners to cancel bookings with flexible cancellation terms for both sides.
• A wishlist saves users’ favorite cars for easy access and booking later.
• Multiple listings help car owners put up several cars for rent and manage their details efficiently.
• Car rules allow car owners to set rules for renters like no eating in the car or allowing/prohibiting pets.
• Pricing allows car owners to set the base rental price for their vehicles.
• A calendar helps car owners keep track of bookings for all their cars.

Having explored features that will let your users effortlessly plan and take trips, let’s see what features will help your admins arrange a smooth car sharing process.

Basic admin panel features

An admin panel is a web application that stores data and manages all activities in the app. Basically, it’s the hub that connects the vehicle’s in-car hardware and the app. It can be created from scratch or using an admin panel template. Common features of an admin panel include:

• Fleet management aims to manage vehicle locations, check fuel/battery levels, and view metrics for in-car systems.
• User management deals with user verification, registration, and profile activities.
• Ride management handles car requests, bookings, and trip endings.
• Payment management monitors payment transactions and settlements.
• Customer support deals with users’ issues and complaints.
• Ratings and reviews management tracks and responds to users’ feedback. 

While basic features aim to provide a seamless car sharing experience, advanced features are designed to ensure your users’ comfort and, as a result, increase their loyalty. Let’s see what nice-to-have features you can implement.

Advanced features for users

Integrating nice-to-have features and leveraging advanced technologies lets you get an advantage over your competitors and attract more customers. Features you might integrate include:

• Multilingual support allows you to cover a larger market.
• Car subscriptions expand your business offering and allow your users to purchase monthly car subscriptions. A car subscription is a great alternative to car leasing.
• Fare calculator allows your users to calculate the approximate cost of their ride beforehand by adding an intended destination or planned rental time.
• In-app camera lets users share and verify their driver’s license directly through an in-app camera. We can also add a frame to help users get a clear, centered photo.
• Loyalty program provides special offers and discounts for regular users that will increase retention and attract new users.
• Emergency assistance includes an SOS button that allows a support specialist to rapidly react to trip incidents and provide timely aid to users.
• Offline mode allows users to access a car in case there is no internet connection.
• Electric vehicle support offers EV-specific features like a charging station map.
• Damage detection checks cars for damage and helps maintain a vehicle’s condition.
• AI chatbot can process and answer users’ requests, speeding up customer support. If you need such a chatbot, our AI experts are ready to help you implement it. 

Advanced admin panel features

Additional features will allow you to better understand users’ preferences and streamline the admin panel work:

• Analytics tools investigate user behavior and preferences and track the application’s performance. Apriorit experts can enhance your solution with AI-based analytics that help you analyze users’ behavior by leveraging AI algorithms and making personalized offers.
• CRM integration allows you to create a single ecosystem for both internal and external business processes and provide efficient service and customer support by storing and synchronizing all information about your customers.
• Fraud prevention tools can use AI to help prevent fraudulent activities.
• Car movement monitoring involves tracking and notifying of suspicious car movements to prevent cars from being stolen.
• Driver behavior monitoring lets you monitor a car’s speed, braking, and acceleration to evaluate driver behavior.
• A smoke detection system can monitor smoking in a car, allowing you to maintain interior quality.
• Cleaning schedules help you arrange car cleaning on a regular basis. 

Building a custom car sharing app allows you to implement everything that users desire, timely react to users’ needs, and add exclusive features to gain a competitive advantage.

Technology stack for car sharing app development

Before moving to the development process, it’s important to define what technologies you will use to build a stable, secure, and scalable solution. Below, we highlight crucial components of a car sharing app and suggest proven technologies for each:

System component	Technologies
Cloud services	– DigitalOcean Cloud Services – Amazon Web Services – Linode  – Vultr  – Microsoft Azure
Web server	– Apache HTTP Server – Nginx
Programming language	– PHP – Python
Framework	– Symfony – Laravel – Django – Flask – Express.js
Database	– MongoDB – MySQL – PostgreSQL
Caching tool	– Redis – Memcached
Mobile application	– Swift – Kotlin – Flutter  – React Native
Geolocation services	– Google Maps API
Secure payment gateway	– PayPal – Stripe – Venmo
Messaging and push notifications	– Twilio – Firebase
Real-time data processing	– Apache Kafka – Apache Flink – AWS Kinesis – Azure Stream Analytics
Admin panel	– EasyAdmin – API Platform Admin – Sonata Admin

• Cloud services. Integrating with cloud services like AWS or Microsoft Azure allows you to scale your app according to business and user needs and enhance its security.
• Web server. To process server requests, you can leverage reliable and stable software like Apache HTTP Server or Nginx.
• Programming language. For the back end of a car sharing application, you can use languages like JavaScript, Python, or PHP. Each language has its own frameworks, so you’ll need to choose one as well.
• Framework. Select a framework depending on the programming language you use. Among PHP frameworks, Symfony and Laravel are the most advanced since they have out-of-the-box libraries for admin panels and other functionality. Python frameworks like Django and Flask are suitable for a car sharing business. However, Django has one serious advantage: it has its own admin panel. And unlike Symfony, it doesn’t require installation of an additional open-source library. This makes Django convenient for admin panel development.
• Database management. MongoDB helps to efficiently manage dynamic data, ensuring high performance of your solution, while PostgreSQL is often used to meet non-standard requirements. MySQL is functional and productive and provides nearly anything a standard car sharing business needs. 
• Caching tool. For powering real-time applications, consider using such caching tools as Redis or Memcached. These tools store data in RAM, helping you unload the server and remove recurrent requests.
• Mobile application. Among cross-platform technologies, you can choose React Native or Flutter to speed up the development process, ensure UX consistency, and facilitate app maintenance. 
• Geolocation services. Leveraging the Google Maps API provides options for route optimization, location features, and real-time tracking.
• Secure payment gateway. To ensure secure payment processing, you can integrate payment gateways by such providers as PayPal, Stripe, or Venmo.
• Messaging and push notifications. Messaging features by Twilio or Firebase will provide smooth in-app communication.
• Real-time data processing. Streaming platforms like Apache Kafka and Apache Flink or cloud service solutions offered by AWS Kinesis and Azure Stream Analytics let you process and analyze data in real time. 
• Admin panel. Your choice of tool for creating admin panel depends on the framework you use. For example, EasyAdmin is a great tool for building clear and functional admin panels with all necessary features, but it’s only compatible with Symfony. API Platform Admin offers a ready React UI component set for your front end, and it’s connected to Symfony via an API.

The right choice of technology stack may help you cope with things you may face while developing your solution. Let’s discuss what they are.

What you should consider when developing a car sharing app

Here are some things you need to take into account before building a car sharing app:

• Complying with relevant requirements. Since every country and even city may have its own regulations for car sharing, it’s important to consider all applicable requirements when building an application. For example, in California, car sharing regulations cover various aspects, including licensing requirements, liability measures, and operational guidelines for car sharing companies, while in New York, operators need to meet specific insurance and licensing standards alongside strict vehicle maintenance protocols.
• Implementing security and data protection measures. Ensuring data security is a key demand for every industry. As a car sharing app deals with sensitive data and manages car operations such as locking/unlocking, it’s crucial to implement advanced security measures and timely updates to guarantee robust security and safety.
• Securely integrating APIs. Integrating ready solutions like a payment gateway service, maps, and push notifications allows you to speed up development and improve application functionality. However, before leveraging a ready solution, you need to consider security measures taken by API providers. 
• Designing a minimalist UI. To guarantee a seamless car sharing experience, it’s important to create an interactive app with a minimalist design and a minimal number of steps.
• Ensuring high app performance and scalability. For real-time applications, a high level of performance is paramount. While building a minimum viable product  (MVP), think over what technologies you can employ to scale your solution. This will help you ensure its stable work in the future.
• Investing resources efficiently. The cost of developing a custom car sharing app depends on the business model, target audience, and features to be implemented. A clear understanding of who your users are and what they need to take a smooth trip will allow you to invest your resources efficiently. 

To consider all the details of building a custom car sharing application, you need to engage a team of specialists with solid expertise both in automotive software development and mobile app development.

Tips for seamless car sharing app development

Before proceeding to full-fledged application development, it’s important to evaluate the potential of your solution. Delivering a minimum viable product allows you to analyze users’ feedback and decide if there is a market need for certain product features, whether the product will be competitive, and if it can meet users’ expectations.

Below are several tips that will help you prepare for development:

• Collect business, customer, and compliance requirements. Before moving to solution development, define business needs and expectations, user demands, and regulatory requirements. As a result, you will get a set of documents describing your solution’s functionality and design. This is useful for budgeting and planning your scope of work. Our experienced business analysts can help you research the market and analyze competitors.
• Establish the project’s scope and budget. Сonsider focusing on a limited number of features that are essential to facilitating the car sharing process and establishing a budget for their development. By creating an MVP, you will be able to analyze users’ feedback and develop your solution according to real user needs.
• Form a team and choose a technology stack. At this stage, you need to engage a development team and choose a technology stack depending on your goals and defined scope of features. Forming the right team in-house can be a challenge, so it may be a good decision to outsource development to an experienced company.
• Build an MVP. Once the MVP is ready, perform beta testing and make changes to your specifications, budget, and scope according to users’ feedback.

After analyzing your MVP and eliminating weaknesses, you can proceed to developing a full-fledged application. Working in cooperation with industry experts will help you build an application that meets the established scope and requirements. Let’s explore how Apriorit specialists can help you with this.

Apriorit’s services for car sharing solution development

As a TISAX-certified company with lots of experience in security, mobile app development, and the automotive industry, we guarantee our clients total compliance with multiple standards and regulations at all SDLC stages and will be glad to help you: 

• Perform market and competitor analysis to define what business model to choose and what functionality will satisfy your users’ needs.
• Build a custom car sharing app to provide your users with a well-protected and scalable solution.
• Ensure high performance of your custom car sharing solution to stay competitive.
• Enhance the security of your car sharing app by leveraging security best practices at all SDLC stages and performing vulnerability testing.
• Conduct security testing for automotive software to increase vehicle safety.
• Integrate AI in your automotive solution to improve the driving experience.

At Apriorit, we have a wide range of experts in different areas and industries. This helps us implement custom solutions that match the specific needs of every client.  

Conclusion

By building a custom car sharing application, you will get a flexible solution that can be adjusted depending on your business needs and users’ demands. You can also obtain a range of business benefits, from attracting new customers and increasing brand awareness to leading the car sharing market.

However, developing car sharing software requires specialists both in mobile app development and the automotive industry. At Apriorit, we have a dedicated team of experts that’s ready to help you with business analysis during a discovery phase and when developing a secure car sharing solution, integrating your app with cloud services, and creating automotive software for your fleet.