Abstract

The number of applications for ride-sharing services has largely increased since UBER started. This blog focuses on reporting  the range of services available, how location data are used, the platforms supported and the foundation mapping employed. A total of 4 different ride-sharing services are summarised.

Introduction

Ride-sharing services are taking over taxi services with cheaper prices and safer trips. Uber is well known for its sharing services in the world since 2010. A number of other ride sharing services have emerged since UBER was created. Applications such as DiDi, Taxify and Shebah were created providing the same services as UBER with different price systems.

1. Uber

Uber business is based on a hybrid cloud model composed of a number a mix cloud providers and active data centers. Uber is composed of SQL and noSQL database to deal with the large amount of data (Uber Engineering, 2016). Uber used Google Map Application Programming Interface (API) then switched to Mapbox and went back to Google Map (Uber map API, 2017). However, since UberPool arrived Uber has developed its own navigation application to have more control on its features and answer to the possibility of overlapping trips with UberPool (Uber rebuilt its navigation app with drivers in mind, 2017). The location of the device is generally recorded to facilitate pick up, navigation and other services. It it possible to configure the location parameters and choose to always share the location, just sharing the location when using the application or not sharing the location. The location data permits the application to calculate an accurate estimation of  time of arrival (How Uber uses Rider Location information, 2018).

2. Taxify

Taxify was founded in 2013,  built its application with Google Map API. It proposes the same services as UBER with a different price system (Taxify grows with Google Map, 2017). Anyone that downloads the application needs to agree with the General Term and Condition  (2018) for collecting and processing the data. The location of passengers is recorded when the passenger ticked on the option.

3. Didi

Didi is a Chinese ride-sharing company that expanded to Australia in 2018. Didi was the biggest competitor to Uber in china. Mainly because Uber uses Google map and it does not work well in China (Uber Gives app,2016). Didi map and navigation are integrated with Baidu Maps, Auto Navi, and Tencent Maps (Didi Open Platform, 2018).

 

4. Shebah

Shebah is an all-female ride-sharing service getting women and children where they need to go. It is the first ride sharing application only for women in Australia (Shebah, 2018). Shebah does not provide detailed information on the API used and location data.

 

Conclusion

To conclude, a number of ride-sharing service applications have emerged since UBER offering the same services with different terms/conditions and fees. Most of the applications defined themself as a market place making driver and passenger in contact.  Most of the data location trip are recorded and can be used to understand traffic in cities. Large application such as DiDi and Uber tend to develop as much as possible their application to have more control on the data and mapping application.