Under the Hood
It's our job to craft good tools for connecting people. This page describes why we're
proud of the system we've developed. Our system is very easy to use by just jumping in,
but if you're the kind of person who likes to look under the hood of a well-running car, read
on...
Protecting Anonymity, Laziness & Privacy.
Users never need expose an email or phone number. When they want to connect with
another user, they send their message through our server, and the response is sent back: no
one needs to share an email address or phone number in order to communicate, though
typically at some point in their communications people will do so.
We also believe that protecting laziness is important: people don't want to regularly
remember to check a carpool website to see if a new match has signed up. Our system lets
either person make the connection: after you sign up, people that sign up after you can email
you. You don't need to check the site.
We are serious about privacy concerns: we don't distribute emails to anyone, nor
keep them for purposes other than use of the system and feedback shortly after.
Combining Computer Sorting and Human Judgment
If 200 people sign up for a carpool or room-share, you don't want to be forced to read
all 200 posts. On the other hand, for a computer to find the perfect match from 200
possibilities is an impossibility: people have preferences that we can't take account of, and
filling out a form that allowed you to design a perfect match would be very time-consuming
and difficult for people who don't like computers. Our solution combines the best of both
worlds: we use a variety of search algorithms to let the computer do the hard work, sorting
through hundreds of posts, to produce the top few. The computer does not make the final
decision, but lets the user read through the top few posts, rather than potentially hundreds of
posts. The better we predict the parameters by which people would choose their match, the
easier it will be for event attendees to find a match. But, if someone has peculiar needs, they
are not out of luck; they simply have to read a few more posts.
Bi-Directional Searching
Classifieds and carpools often suffer from a single problem: no one wants to sign up
first, everyone wants to read and respond to other people's ads. Our system works
differently. Searches and posts are combined.
Integrating Multiple Searches
Driving to a conference then looking for a hotel roommate? Our system lets you first
search for one person for both parts of your journey. If you can't find a perfect match, you
can instantly split your search to look for a carpool, and then a roommate.
Our system also lets you handle other complex searches: let's say you are unsure
whether you want to fill your car and drive, or leave your car at home and get a ride. The
search shows you both at once, filtering the responses based on other answers.
Users don't need to understand the details: the searches will just work, step by
simple step.
Critical Mass
Carpooling systems often fail, simply because too few people use them. Our solution is
to work with events that want to have a better networked, more environmentally friendly
event. Each event has enough drivers going to the same place at the same time, so the
system works. Our dream is to help thousands of events, and eventually leverage event-carpooling
into an anywhere-to-anywhere system. But we're starting with the realistic and
practical.
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