Addendum: Unbeknownst to the authors of this post, a San Francisco startup Uber has recently secured additional VC funding and announced plans to expand to New York with its own variation of a next gen ride service. Wired’s done a nice job of describing an initial user experience with Uber, which allows SF users to hail one of 100 city drivers from their mobile phones. Drivers come from non-taxi “sedan services” that partner with the company. While Uber’s business model does not yet constitute the wholly networked solution to the cab industry we envisioned, it does mark a step in the right direction. Convenience comes at a cost, however; there is a minimum price of $15 per ride. Hopefully the founders of Uber read this blog and steal the rest of our idea(s).
Addendum 2: The call for more peer-to-peer transportation gained strength again two weeks ago at TechCrunch Disrupt, where car-sharing service Getaround was officially launched. Getaround lets mobile users peruse the gallery of available cars to borrow, and notably, allows owners to rate their renters, creating a nice incentive to be a responsible member of the network.