The Observation Deck

Okay, time for one of you smart people out there to get on the ball.

with all the social media and millions of worthless aps out there, could someone build something for me?

I want an ap for smart phones that works like this...

I want to be able to plug my commute route to work onto an online map, I'll put in information about what kind of car I drive and what music I play on the radio on the drive in.

I want other people to put in their potential pickup location and destination. They can add a couple of personal details about who they are, etc. Then, they hit a button to alert the system when they are at or near their pickup location.

Then, when I'm ready to leave for work, I hit a button and it uploads a list of potential commuters that I could choose to pick up. If I'm willing to give any of them a ride, I just select their icon from the potential list and it alerts them to my e.t.a. and gives them a description of my car, etc.

Then after we share a ride in to work, we can both go online and confidentially rate the rider/driver for future rider sharing purposes.

lots of potential hurdles, bugs and issues to work out, but hey, thought that might be something actually useful to have.

I bet Anthony Sowell would love that app!

Seriously, it's a great concept but how do you ensure security?

My thought was "if I needed a ride to work, I don't want to wait until 8:30am and hope somebody wants to pick me up".

But I don't see why it would be incumbent upon the maker of the app/service to 'ensure security' any more than a coffeeshop is responsible for who answers a 'ride wanted' flyer on their bulletin board.

here's your security measure...

when the car comes, if you think the ride is questionable you don't get in, and then you put the comment "kinda creepy lookin - didn't take the ride" on the comment section for that driver.

on the other side, when you get to the site, and the ridee is wearing a hockey mask and carrying a large garbage bag that's dripping blood, you just keep driving and hit a button on the ap that says, "ride offer recinded", then put a comment on that person's section that says, "passed him by, didn't want blood stains on the leather seats."

as for the time issue, I would think that if you were looking for a ride, you would just submit for one and see what happens, then head to the bus stop anyway, in case there were no offers.

it would obviously take a while before a big enough list of acceptable drivers and riders would build up to make it truly effective, but hey, much of what is on the internet started that way.