USA Today, 2/29/2016 -- Coming soon to a rental car near you: apps that let you make voice-activated reservations, programs that track the health of your vehicle, and wireless hotspots.

The upgrades are incremental, leading toward a future when self-driving rentals pick you up from home, the train station or the airport. That day is just around the corner.

"I believe it to be inevitable," says car rental analyst Neil Abrams. "Autonomous vehicles are on the horizon and in the next several years."

Would you rent a car that drove itself? Me, too.

Back to reality, all these new developments do raise the question: Are drivers ready for these brave new cars?

Car rental companies are upping the ante with their apps. Avis, in late 2015, became the first car rental company to launch an app for the Apple Watch. It lets you email yourself a car rental receipt and retrieve car rental reservations right from your wrist. The company also upgraded its Android app to allow consumers to make reservations by voice, which is a great feature if you're driving. And Audi surprised observers by introducing an app that allows "on demand" direct bookings that bypass the car rental agency entirely.

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/advice/2016/02/28/rental-cars-wifi-apps-technology/80933944/