Presto - Community Carpool

Mockup - Display Panel
Launch Screen
Landing screen
Menu
Destination / Location
Driving toward pickup
Meet your driver
Track / call your driver
Driving toward location
Completed ride, rate driver and then either connect with them (if you want)
Landing page for drivers
Passenger mode can now be selected
Selecting destination of your drive
Incoming pickup request - shows the detour time and distance. As well as the route to pickup
Shows the route to pickup (assuming you accepted the request)
Waiting for passenger - you can now call them
Shows route to drop off point
Opportunity to connect with the passenger
Choice to keep accepting requests on your way to your destination
Assuming you decline, shows the route to your destination

Inspiration

Vancouver can be a place, where it is hard to form long-term genuine relationships with people. Moreover, Vancouver, like most big North American cities is car-centric, so there are simply fewer interactions with other people. We found a niche that existed between carpooling and cabbing apps - where drivers would be incentivized to pick up people to form better relationships or make new friends sharing the same route. Thus came Presto, the community live carpooling app.

What it does

Presto is inspired by Uber and Lyft, but it has relationship fostering features, that makes it into completely different category of apps. You can form the community group - events/hackathons formations, community center drop-in, office worker or student groups, etc.. People can get matched within their communities, fostering bond in a safe and friendly environment. You can set your routine weekly/daily routes in the app, and Presto smart algorithms would automatically match you a new driver on a regular basis. Or it you can let Presto do the heavy lifting of the scheduling and route formation of pick up for you and your friends.

Presto allows drivers to enjoy the flexibility that comes with carpool apps, whilst making the monetary gains that come with regular cabbing apps. You can set the destination where you go and Presto algorithms will intelligently match the passengers that are as close to your route as possible while you are driving, everything realtime!

How we built it

We had two members design the entire app on Figma whilst two developers created a beta testing version with React Native and Expo. We used Supabase for database. The app will be deployed on TestFlight to allow nwHacks 2024 participants to utilize our product to get home safely and comfortably, while making new connections.

Challenges we ran into

For design. We found it difficult settling on a color scheme - knowing our app was community based and inclusive we wanted to avoid corporate colors such as black and blue; and incorporate brighter, trendier colors such as purple, pink and yellow. It was tough finding a way to balance and design with these. Moreover it was difficult designing so many pages (we had to design experiences for riders and drivers).

For development, neither of us did mobile app development previously. We also created a smart distance matrix algorithm which was a steep learning curve from basic CRUD operations. To maximize efficiency, we came up with an innovative solution to cut on time spend on developing the authorization.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of the design we came up with. It flows in a way that clearly communicates the function, and more importantly, it's easy, usable and fun; with colors and language that communicate the tone of our product. On the technical side, we are proud of out super smart and user-friendly matching algorithm.

What we learned

In terms of design, we learned how important it is to plan ahead so that we can get a clear cut goal of what we want to design. Similarly, communication with developers was also incredibly important, because as a team, we had to design whether or not we wanted to align the development of the product exactly the same as the design ahead of time, so that neither parties are wasting time due to the time limit of the hackathon. Hence, we learned how to be versatile with design and adapt to differing design decisions/situations.

In terms of the development of the product, delving into mobile app development from scratch was a steep learning curve. The creation of a smart distance matrix algorithm expanded our understanding of maps, graphs and tree problems. Our efforts to avoid authorization challenges taught us valuable problem-solving skills and efficient time management.

What's next for Presto - Community Carpool

We are ready to expand beyond communities, and have designed more safety tools for people. For example, verification of users by scanning documents, issuing insurances for the rides and providing the live tracking tools to help prevent hazardous situations.