Rental/Car-Share Vehicle Access and Management System and Method

A system is described that wirelessly connects vehicles with a remote computer system using a vehicle control unit that is re-usable with different vehicles. The vehicle control unit can be detachably connectable with different vehicles over time to support rental transactions of the vehicles to which it is connected. Pairing techniques are described for linking the vehicle control unit with the vehicle to which it is connected. Furthermore, to re-use that vehicle control unit with a different vehicle, an unpairing process can be used to de-link the vehicle control unit from a first vehicle; and that vehicle control unit can then be paired with a different vehicle. To support the rental transactions, the remote computer system can send wireless signals to the vehicle control unit to control one or more vehicle functions of the paired vehicle to which the vehicle control unit is connected.