

Ridejoy (YC S11): Make Some Dough On Your Next Roadtrip - llambda
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/28/yc-funded-ridejoy-hitch-a-ride-on-the-cheap-or-make-some-dough-on-your-next-roadtrip/

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Shenglong
I tried it out the other day, and actually found a ride! Not the mention Jason
from ridejoy poked me right away for feedback. They're really friendly, and
seem attentive! Best of luck :)

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jasonshen
Thanks Shenlong! There's almost always someone manning the chat widget
(usually me). I'm glad you found a ride!

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jsavimbi
Best of luck with the app, but the fonts are killing me, man.

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jasonshen
Haha - you mean the handwriting one? =)

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jsavimbi
Yeah, Architects Daughter is, well, anyways. It just went up in price, but
I've found The Big Book of Font Combinations to provide some good guidance in
relation to font picking. <http://bonfx.com/the-big-book-of-font-
combinations/>

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jfeldstein2
A handful of my friends used this to get rides to burning man. Worked like a
charm, and really saved the day.

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preinheimer
We've had a few of these types of things up here in America's hat, they seem
to end up sued/legislated out of existence by the various transport groups. I
know a few of the student unions ended up taking their rideshare boards
offline. Shame, they were handy.

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thedjpetersen
I made a ridesharing application(<http://www.ridezap.com>) this summer! Sadly
it hasn't really caught on among my friends.

I really hope this takes off, I feel like there is a true hole for ridesharing
in the US. I feel like this is a good application and I feel that they are
making rapid progress(I saw large improvements in just a week!). It needs a
little more polish and they should be able to catch up with
ZimRide(<http://www.zimride.com>).

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mrschwabe
Cool concept. Its like a digital solution to hitchiking. I can see how this
service would be useful for trips into the valley.

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Joeboy
In the UK there's liftshare.com, although I think they do a lot of their
business via companies wanting to reduce their carbon footprint by introducing
car-sharing schemes for their employees.

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jasonshen
Yeah, we've seen people take the enterprise rideshare approach and while
that's great way to generate revenue, we're focused on building a company for
the long term that really facilitates rideshare to anywhere for anyone.

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justhw
Interesting. But I'm kinda curios how scrapping craigslist will turnout. Check
this for example.

<http://www.ridejoy.com/portland>

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gyardley
Just out of curiosity, _why_ is it technically illegal for drivers to make a
profit on the ride? What's the law and why does it exist?

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fcn_fan
This is a publication from the California PUC:
[http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/42294D2B-412E-466E-A74B-...](http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/42294D2B-412E-466E-A74B-F1862BFC6924/0/PassengerCarriersBasicInfoandApplicantsRev012811.pdf)

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mahyarm
Let us specify destinations in terms of Airports. I put in SFO and I got an
awkward address instead. Using this for rides to and from airports would be
godly, since parking there is often overpriced.

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ridejoy
By awkward address, you mean "International Terminal G (EMB), 275 S Airport
Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94080, USA"? Just checking. We'll add support for
place names at some point. Thanks!

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mhd
So it's like eRideShare or Ridester, but a bit more Web 2.0?

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jasonshen
Yes. But 100x better. =)

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mhd
Completion could need some work, though. Maybe it's just me, but I'd expect
that clicking on one of the origins/destinations when they pop up would select
it and quit the dropdown (normal combobox behavior).

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ridejoy
This was fixed shortly after your report. Thanks!

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gms
What a great idea. I wish them success!

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Swizec
We've had something similar in Slovenia for many years and it's working
_wonderfully_.

Best of luck to you guys! I'll give it a try next time I'm in the US.

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mhd
There's a bunch of those services in Germany, too. Then again, I think car
sharing has been a bit popular in Europe in general, as cars per capita might
be a bit lower, gas prices are higher and not everybody has a car suited for
longer routes.

(Established players in Germany: <http://www.mitfahrzentrale.de/>,
<http://www.mfz.de>, <http://www.mifaz.de/>, <http://mitfahrclub.adac.de/>,
<http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/>; One new startup I'm aware of:
<https://www.flinc.org/?l=en>)

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litmus
when i went to Germany, someone hooked me on to gelegenheit. i thought it was
the shit ever since. i would use google translate for the site, then call the
drivers asking if they spoke english. They all said 'a little bit' even though
98% were fluent, which must be some kind of German modesty thing. The site
seems to have clones or sister sites in most western europe countries as well.
I would have expected people in various Eastern european countries to shun
these services on safety grounds, so I am surprised that it is big in
Slovenia.

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rabbitonrails
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalifornia>

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pittsburgh
When I think of ridesharing this much more pleasant one comes to mind:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Harry_Met_Sally>

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TruthElixirX
This seems like AirBnB except with cars. Seems like they might run into the
same liability problems.

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brador
Of course. Modern startup thinking seems to be "we'll get a fireproof door
once the wood one has burnt down".

Only with this one it's not likely to be your possessions like it is with
AirBnB, more likely to be you. Imagine the driver taking you down a quiet road
to where his friends happen to be waiting.

Also, since you're taking passangers, do you need a taxi licence or liability
insurance as a driver taking passangers for payment?

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Swizec
Slovenia has had a service like this for about 6 years and nothing has ever
happened to anyone. It's much less of a problem than you'd think.

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brador
You can't get a complaint letter from a murder victim.

It's an awesome service among friends though.

What's the service called in Slovenia?

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thwarted
I'm sure this service would also be an awesome way to make friends. Everyone's
a stranger before you get to know them. So maybe it's worth meeting up before
getting into a cross-country car ride with them.

