Uber and Lyft have transformed the way people order taxis and now Ride wants to do the same for carpooling. Ride is designed by Oscar Salazar, Uber's founding CTO and third co-founder alongside Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick.
Salazar is CTO and product chief of Ride, which is owned by TPG Capital, also an investor in Uber and Lyft. Unlike those two ride-sharing businesses, however, Ride is aimed at companies rather than individuals.
Companies sign up to use Ride. Then employees download the app and add their addresses and car types. They also can opt to become drivers, passengers, or both.
Ride then matches co-workers based on their location and time of commutes. If a commuter doesn't like the car pool they're placed in, they can decline it and Ride's algorithm will choose another one.
Usually the person furthest away from the office is selected as the driver and sent a route which will allow him to collect his colleagues on his way to the office. Passengers pay roughly 10 cents per mile (prices fluctuate slightly based on gas and toll prices) and drivers get this fee up to 56 cents per mile based on the most direct distance to the office.
"We optimize the system and we can always find the best routes for you and also for your colleagues," Salazar said. "We want your commute to be as smooth as possible while saving as much as you can."
Ride, which launched its service nationwide on April 7, is aiming to become a part of commuter's daily routine. Once a route is set up, users will be billed daily unless they click a special "I'm not riding today" button.
If you don't have a car or want to ferry more of your colleagues to the office with you, Ride will supply you with a leased car, minivan or SUV thanks to a partnership with GM.
"Companies that are interested have a lot of people who have an arduous commute of 30 minutes or more, have parking lot pressure, and a sustainability goal," said Ride CEO Ann Fandozzi, who was formerly an executive for Ford and DaimlerChrysler.
The company has actually been around for three decades as vRide, which works with employers to set up private van pools for workers as a job perk but is being reinvented as a mobile service. Salazar is less well-known than his Uber co-founders, Camp and Kalanick, mainly because he left the company soon after the app launched, but since he did build the Uber prototype we can expect a slickly designed app.
Both Uber and Lyft have their own carpooling services, UberPool and Lyft Line, but they offer carpooling to anyone, not just employees. The idea of sharing a ride to work with a complete stranger is a lot less appealing than sharing with a colleague, which is where Ride could have an edge. For now Ride is available on iOS only.
