Tech start-ups find a steal deal in keeping car thieves away

As self-driven car rental firms see an increasing number of customers driving away with cars only not to return, tech start-ups have sniffed a business opportunity.

The start-ups are offering high-tech centralised real-time monitoring system that can even immobilise car engines if they find anything suspicious with the vehicle's movement.

The car rental firms too have become more vigilant in accepting the identity proofs submitted by customers and re-verifying it with the available government data and social media.

Revv, a Gurgaon-based shared mobility start-up, has set up an ultra-tech centralised control system which not only gives the company promoters the control in their business but also relief to those who have deployed cars in the business.

Technology is taking care of such things, said promoters Anupam Agarwal and Karan Jain, two former ex-associate partners at McKinsey, who started the venture in July 2015.

The company sources the vehicles from its channel partners (companies whose businesses have gone down after coming up of taxi-hailing online platforms like Ola and Uber), leasing companies and existing inventory in the market.

Company officials said at least 10 times in the past the customers have tried to steal the car, but net technological hurdles.

Stringent cross verification measures like accepting fares primarily through online modes, re-verification of identity proofs through government-based data and mining of social media has also helped in identifying potential miscreants.

So what are the signs the company sees to conclude whether the customer is up to some mischief? Industry sources said some of the signs are obvious.

For example, the monitoring system can detect that the car may not be on its way for being handed over back and instead moving suspiciously in some other direction.

Another is the customer does not respond to the mobile notification and calls.

The technology installed in these cars is such that even if the customer stealing the car removes the wire of chip which sends out the GPS signal, the battery attached to it is still capable of sending out some signals for around 12 hours, which the thieves may not realise.

This all is part of the onboard diagnostics, which continuously collect data about the health of the car.

This is based on over 50 different parameters like engine temperature, brake fluid, clutch position, harsh braking, seat belt usage, driving habit of the customer like how well she/he manoeuvres on the roads, how frequently she/he pulls the clutch and brakes, etc.

Sources said it not only monitors theft by the customer but also tracks if someone else attempts to do so when the car is parked.

"Though remote immobilisation is not a practice we love to do, but we do it once we have reasons to believe that someone may be doing mischief with the car," said Sakshi Vij, founder of a self-driven car rental company Myles that has over 1,200 cars in its fleet.

"We have invested heavily in the on-board diagnostics devices," she said.

Bengaluru head quartered Zoomcar too has a system which keeps a constant track on its 2500 cars together clocking over 3,800 odd rides on daily basis. " The system helps us to avoid tricky situations" said Greg Moran, CEO of Zoomcar.

According to the analysts, the Indian self-driven car rental market has been witnessing growth in recent years due to rising demand for long distance and weekend trips . According to the Ken Research report, the India Self Drive Car Rental market is expected to grow at CAGR of 35% in terms of revenue. Sighting a report in February last year , financial new portal India Infoline says that Indian self-driven car rental market will reach to Rs 1400 crore by year 2020.