PopIntoMyCar

Share the ride, cut the carbon, spark the connection. Smart event commutes powered by Stripe.

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Inspiration

Every morning of a major conference or music festival—like the Toronto Tech & Climate Summit at MTCC or Osheaga in Montreal—thousands of attendees commute along the exact same highway corridors (the Gardiner, DVP, Highway 401).

Over 80% travel alone in separate cars, generating tons of avoidable vehicle CO₂ emissions, worsening urban gridlock, and spending $40+ on downtown parking. Worst of all, attendees arrive stressed and walk into a venue of 5,000 strangers knowing nobody.

We built PopIntoMyCar to transform commuter friction into collective climate action and meaningful human connection: giving attendees their first conference friend before they even step through the venue doors.

What it does

PopIntoMyCar is an AI agent that pairs event attendees departing from the same regions (Mississauga, Markham, North York, Liberty Village, Oakville) to carpool or split rides down to the event venue:

  1. Conversational Onboarding: Instead of rigid 8-page forms, attendees just chat with PopIntoMyCar about where they are leaving from, departure timing, and professional passions.
  2. Multi-Factor Synergy Matching: The agent pairs riders based on route corridors (QEW/Gardiner, DVP, Yonge St), convenient transit hubs (GO Stations, subway plazas), and background overlap (e.g., Clean Energy, EV Fleets, Climate FinTech).
  3. Quantified UN SDG Impact: PopIntoMyCar calculates exact vehicle emissions prevented using EPA standards (~404g CO₂ avoided per eliminated car-mile).
  4. Stripe Checkout & Sustainable Unit Economics: A transparent $5.00 CAD transaction handles the ride:
    • $4.00 CAD Carpool Driver Split (routed to the driver via Stripe Connect).
    • $0.50 CAD PopIntoMyCar Platform Coordination Fee.
    • $0.50 CAD Micro-contribution to Stripe Climate (funding permanent frontier carbon removal).
  5. Anti-No-Show QR Verification: Mutual QR scan at the pickup spot verifies the meetup, releases the driver's payout, and generates an official UN SDG Impact Certificate!

How we built it

We provisioned and orchestrated our entire full-stack architecture using the Stripe Projects CLI:

  • Stripe & Stripe Climate: Generates real Stripe Checkout sessions for the seat reservation and channels micro-contributions directly into permanent frontier carbon removal (Climeworks, Heirloom, Charm). Architected with Stripe Connect for P2P driver disbursements.
  • OpenRouter & LLMs: Drives our intelligent agent to parse unstructured GTA locations, extract departure windows, and reason over professional synergy.
  • Supabase (PostgreSQL): Stores verified attendee profiles, ride pairing state, and coordinates.
  • Customer.io: Dispatches transactional confirmation emails containing pickup spot coordinates and AI-generated commute icebreaker questions.
  • Next.js & Turbopack (React 19, Tailwind CSS): High-speed, mobile-responsive UI with interactive QR code verification and a built-in pitch deck presentation (/presentation).

Challenges we ran into

  1. Anti-No-Show Accountability: In carpooling, flaking is a major barrier. We designed an authorization hold model backed by a mutual QR scan at transit hubs so drivers know their passengers are committed, and passengers know drivers will show up.
  2. Accurate Impact Metrics: We wanted the environmental data to be credible, not greenwashing. We integrated EPA-standard passenger vehicle emissions formulas (~404g CO₂/mile) and paired them with real Stripe Climate frontier removal certificates.
  3. Multi-Service Agentic Provisioning: Coordinating Stripe, Supabase, Customer.io, and OpenRouter credentials was streamlined using the stripe projects plugin, allowing us to provision infrastructure without juggling API dashboard keys.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • End-to-End Working Flow in Record Time: A user can chat naturally with PopIntoMyCar, get matched with a real commuter (Sina, Shao, Usha, Khush, Eleni), check out through live Stripe Checkout, and verify their meetup via QR code.
  • Direct Stripe Climate Integration: Every single confirmed ride funds verified, permanent carbon removal.
  • Quantifiable UN SDG Alignment: Real metrics advancing SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities), and SDG 3 (Good Health & Well-being / Anti-Isolation).
  • Interactive Pitch Deck: Built an in-app presentation mode (/presentation) enabling a smooth transition from pitch slides directly into the live demo.

What we learned

  • How the Stripe Projects CLI accelerates developer velocity by managing cloud credentials and services straight from the terminal.
  • How small micro-contributions ($0.50 CAD to Stripe Climate) embedded directly into high-frequency events create massive aggregate environmental impact.
  • That the commute is one of the highest-leverage, most underutilized networking windows for any event or conference.

What's next for PopIntoMyCar

  • B2B Event Organizer SDK: Provide conferences, concerts, and sports leagues with a 1-line embeddable widget to offer carpooling to their ticket holders and receive automated ESG sustainability reports.
  • Full Stripe Connect Onboarding: Instant self-serve payouts for peer drivers with direct deposit.
  • Multi-City & Festival Expansion: Expanding beyond Toronto to Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Austin, and major festival grounds.

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