There were two official launch parties of transportation companies on May 29, 2015 in Washington, D.C. What are these two new transpiration businesses? They are Split, which is for ride sharing, and Getaround for the sharing of cars for rides. These launch parties open up new competition for Uber and Lyft.
The ride-sharing transportation company called Split debuted its car service that is on demand to a group of 500. This launch party was at Long View Gallery. The CEO of Split Ario Keshani was present, as well as the business development director Dan Winston. Split’s service is different from Uber and Lyft from a transportation aspect. What was this difference? Split offers a service of connection between those who are going in the same direction. They all share a ride with a Split driver. The entire car trip is organized and arranged with the assistance of a mobile app. It is real-time routing algorithms that take and combine various overlapping rides. These rides are on the fly and in a single car.
The team that is behind the transportation company called Split are three individuals. These people are Beth Nelan, Sara Pierce, and Mimi Matome. Split uses are DC’s open data for the city plans. This open data identifies key points that exists on legal stopping areas. They avoid crosswalks, any bike lanes, and other areas that can be disruptive. All riders are given designated areas to wait for their rides. This service only caters to DC’s central core. This central core includes Georgetown, Capitol Hill, Columbia Heights, and Constitution Avenue. It also extends to rides that run from S2 to S8.
Getaround also debuted on the same night in the DC area. This is the transportation company’s very first East Coast market on record. The great team behind the DC market launch includes the founders Jessica Scorpio and Sam Zaid. Getaround is a San Francisco based organization. It is a service that is based on peer-to-peer car sharing. This great car service permits an individual to offer their cars to others for usage. Getaround has hardware technology that is designed by them in-house. This special service uses GPS, Bluetooth LE, and keyless remote technology for renters. It permits them to use their phones to get access to the car. There is no awkward key exchange involved.
This launch party took place at Union Market. It attracted nearly 2,000 in number. A part of this welcoming crowd was CD Media New York’s Ryan Hamilos and from Fosterly was Adam Zuckerman. There was also Kevin Alansky from Social Radar present too. Getaround opened as a transportation company back in 2011. They managed to raise about 24 million in funding. They presently have about 4,000 DC users.