One-way car-sharing services (CSSs) are believed to be a promising
transportation mode for urban mobility. Because of the disparity of city
functional areas and population, travel demand and vehicle supply in a CSS
system may inevitably tend to be imbalanced as well. Therefore, an essential
requirement of one-way CSSs is the capability of providing fleet management
solutions to improve the quality of service and system performance. In other
words, a CSS depends heavily on technologies that offer strategic decisions
for topics like fleet sizing, location and capacity of depots and charging
stations, matching of travelers with vehicles, relocation of vehicles and
dispatchers for fleet rebalancing, and the balancing and charging schedules
of electric vehicles.
This chapter addresses trending CSS technologies and outlines some insights
into the existing unsettled issues and potential solutions. The discussions
and outlook are presented as a collection of key points encountered in
system planning, configuration, and especially fleet operation. In doing so,
the focus is on innovation in technologies, policies, operations, and
regulations that impact operators, users, and transport management
authorities.