Feature: Smartphone app scrambles for carsharing commuters

A number of smartphone applications, or apps, are currently battling in the field of car- hailing, with Uber and Lyft winning the war so far, but none have seriously approached carsharing.

That is the niche the carpool app Ride wants to fill, Ride's co- founder Oscar Salazar said.

"We don't want to compete with Uber or Lyft, it's not our goal, " he told Xinhua. "We want to complement them, because we saw the need for something like this, especially since many people who take their car to work every day could greatly benefit from the idea."

Ride was launched in the United States last week, targeting co- workers at businesses, after a trial version was offered in December 2014 to students and staff at Stanford University in northern California.

"It had a great welcome among the students because many of them could share a ride this way, without the hassle of having to organize who drives when and how much money each passenger has to chip in for gas," Salazar said.

Ride uses algorithms created by Salazar, who also designed Uber 's first prototype, to organize pick-up locations and schedules.

"It's really easy to use and the interface really resembles Uber," Salazar said. "Users put in their credit card information and after each ride the price of gas is deducted. This is not an app for profit, so the driver doesn't make any money like with Uber, but rather saves money on gas."

According to Ride, more than 100 million people in the United States ride solo everyday, which is a waste of gas and bad for the environment. "The main idea behind Ride is to help people save money on gas, make their daily commute less stressful and help the environment by reducing the number of cars on the road," Ashish Prashar, Ride's spokesman, told Xinhua.

"As of now this is almost entirely geared towards commuters who will use it on the daily basis and only in the United States," Prashar said. "However, Ann Fandozzi, our CEO, believes we will be able to take on the international market soon."

Ride, as a two-year-old start-up, is owned by San Francisco- based TPG Growth, a company that invested in Uber during its early stages. This, along with the fact that Salazar jumped on board, is leading many to believe that Ride just "rode" on a highly profitable niche.

"When Ride contacted me to help them develop the algorithms for the app, I immediately jumped on board, because I thought this app can have a lot of social impact. I always love to take on different challenges that help improve the way we live," Salazar said. Endite