the idea started from something dumb and specific: i like watching movies, and the nearest theater is a $25 uber each way. that's a stupid amount of money to spend getting somewhere when there are probably three other people on campus going the exact same direction that same afternoon.
that's basically the whole problem. there are students with cars and students without, and constantly someone's messaging the international student group chat asking if anyone's headed to the airport, or if anyone's going shopping and has room for one more. it already happens, it's just happening over whatsapp, where you have to be looking at your phone at the right second or you miss it entirely.
so this isn't really a marketplace and it's not about matching people cleverly. if i can post that i need a ride in the morning and actually get one before the day's over, that's the whole goal met. the important part is that it has to notify people — something like "planning to go to [location] today? someone needs a ride around [time]", and on the other side, "[driver] is driving [someone] around [time] with room for [number] more, want to join?" if that loop works, everything else is decoration.
i don't intend to make any money off this either. that's not me being noble, i just don't want to think about monetization while i'm trying to figure out if the core idea even works.
what it is
a pwa, so it can live on your phone like a real app without going through an app store. i went back and forth with myself early on about whether to narrow this down to one specific use case — airport runs, say — and decided against it. i want it flexible. an airport run and someone driving to walmart on a tuesday should be the same kind of post, not two different features.
where it's at
the push notification piece works, which was the part i was actually worried about. subscribe, unsubscribe, delivery to a closed app, tested on my phone in both safari and arc. that mattered more to me than anything else getting built first, because if push doesn't actually reach someone, there's no app, just a website nobody remembers to check.
everything else is early. you can sign in with a campus email, post a trip, see the feed. email isn't verified yet so in theory someone could type in any .edu address and get in, which means this stays a friends-only thing for now.
what's next
joining a trip doesn't exist yet — no claiming a seat, no confirming, nothing. same with clustering trips that are actually going to the same place. and email verification needs to happen before i'd feel okay sending this link to anyone i don't already know.
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