If you live in a major metro like New York City or San Francisco, you’ve probably seen a ZipCar parked in your area. Now that ZipCar’s long-awaited iPhone app is live, you can control those cars straight from your iPhone’s touchscreen! Yes, this is the future, welcome home.
We’ve been expecting the ZipCar iPhone app ever since Apple showed off the virtual keyfob application at the iPhone 3GS announcement at WWDC 2009. During the keynote, attendees were shown an iPhone app that could not only reserve cars and pinpoint every available ZipCar on a location-aware map, it allowed the user to honk a particular car’s horn and lock or unlock the doors – all from the iPhone. The integration of the iPhone app into ZipCar’s network of rental cars was so well executed that we half expected the app to launch with some sort of ignition control feature. Alas, you’ll still have to use a physical car key to start your ZipCar.
The free ZipCar iPhone app is now live in the AppStore. Even if you don’t have a ZipCar membership, you can download the app and browse ZipCars in your area.
ZipCar for iPhone (iTunes link)