... you will get away with it!
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Challenge
Stop and go. Stop and go, the same every morning. We sit in the car and we get frustrated just like the many thousand others who are alone in their cars just sitting there and gradually moving forward. The radio says that the traffic in the Netherlands would be running normally. Is this normal? Please! On a 6-lane road to an important appointment being just as quick as a child on his scooter? Does really anybody need to travel alone in his car?
Traffic congestion costs The Netherlands 650 million a year, upon that, it causes policy makers and city planners headaches. Traditional carpooling does not work (price uncertainty, it may be uncertain with whom you travel and you are dependent on each other). Public Transport is crowded. Subsequently, people will chose for the easiest rather than the uncomfortable. Government may try to reduce traffic congestion with road pricing, the usage of the car will cost money – but this alone will also not solve the problem.
Solution
In a world where the lifestyle of nearly everyone is to have a cell phone and is connected to one or more social networks, mobility should not be linked to owning a car. You are mobile because you have a mobile phone. iCarYou responds to this lifestyle development in an ingenious way: Simply by combining the Mobile Internet with a matching module and GPS based applications and offer this package/service to an online community. Everybody in this community - whether driver or passenger - could meet somebody else via the cell phone for a ride with the same direction, just “on the fly”. Efficiently used, the number of cars on the way to work can at least be halved. Thus, you could travel twice as fast and both drivers and passengers would have price confidence. Moreover, people will trust each other, because all belong to the same community.
Results
At the moment iCarYou is in the stage of launching the service to the market in The Netherlands where it can be used as of January 2010. During the 1st quarter 2010 iCarYou will also be launched in Germany – under the COMOVEO label. We will also white label our product to bigger companies and existing (carpool) communities.
iCarYou is creating a social community by simply connecting to existing communities like LinkedIn or Hyves or XING. The critical mass will enable driver or passenger to meet somebody in real time for a ride with the same direction.
Target Markets
Commuters, students, industrial areas, office areas, local governments, bigger companies, social networks, carpool networks, passengers, drivers
Specific Interests In Meeting Partnering
local governments, energy supplier, network companies, social network representatives, Carpool companies
Specific Interests In Customer Contacts
Commutors, carpoolers, students