iThumb

USE CASES

USE CASE for Bob and Alice

Bob is a driver of a car with a GPS Wireless device, with phone, map and web page display Alice is a pedestrian passenger with a hand held GPS wireless device & web display.. an iPhone with GPS for instance
Both have pre registered with WiRide.net/iThumb.org with their name, address, photo, required and model of car. Bob as a driver, enters his drivers license ID. Confirmation required from email.

Alice is a pedestrian/passenger just finished with shopping in Seattle and heads home to Renton - Alice opens her iPhone and logs onto WiRide/iTHumb (she is a member) and she says that she wants to go to Renton. Her GPS notes her current location at Macys. He app Sends notice and then receives notice that there are no drivers available now. She is hopeful and waits. Soon she is notified that there is someone going later in the day... she decides not to accept that one and keeps waiting.

Bob is a Driver starting a trip from Ballard to Renton... about 20 miles. He Keys in the trip in his GPS device... sends info to WiRide as he begins to drive. The Service confirms it... and Bob sees on his screen the map of his route.. He notes there are 2 or 3 marks on the map. Drive taps one that is near-by - about 6 blocks away. He reads the name and sees the picture of the person who wants a ride to Renton. He accepts and continues to drive his trip route

Alice now receives notice to her phone that there is a driver on the road nearby that is going her way. She clicks on the icon on her phone and opens up a picture of the driver, his name, and the rating that other passengers have given him for courtesy and reliability. She sees that he is safe, young, known, trusted, and a member for almost a year - so she taps the accept button to arrange the ride. She sees she can call him, but elects not to do so.

Both Bob and Alice see their screens refresh to show a GPS map of the area with each others location marked with an icon. Both see that they are only about 3 blocks apart. Alice looks at her screen and sees that she should be looking out for a Green Toyota Prius. She looks at the picture of the driver again, Then she walks out to the curb, and then her phone beeps with a notice that they are about a block apart.

Bob's in car wireless device notices they are near each other and also beeps... and a verbal statement comes out like "Meeting party on the right one block"

To assure that she will meet her car, Alice holds up the glowing screen of her iPhone. Bob sees the phone screen and pulls over and unlocks the door. Since this is the first time they each have met, (1st usage of service is with required photo match ) they each must confirm face pictures of the other. Alice looks at his face and sees it matches what is on the iPhone screen. She presses a confirm button on her iPhone and gets in the car. Their screens both reflect the merged GPS co-ordinated travel. He presses the button on his GPS saying that he has picked up his ride..

Pleasant chit-chat ensues. Bob's GPS device in the car works normally with a note that data is being sent to WiRide/iThumb. Alice's GPS wireless device works normally with a note that she is traveling with Bob. They travel to Renton. He lets her off close to her house.

Their GPS maps indicate divergent paths and the program then asks for confirmation that all is done and everyone is happy... if each wants to quickly rate the experience with the other, then it is done with about 2 or 3 taps on the screen. Alice says Bob is pleasant and reliable, and that he refuse her donation for gas.

All done. For now.

Later that month the Bob asks for and gets a full report of how many rides he has given to others .... His total is over 300 passenger miles for the month. With 20 passengers. Many were at the University where he is taking classes.

Bob uses this number for something like: fuel discounts, local and federal tax reduction, subsidized something. Or other appropriate brownie points.

Alice gets a report that she has accepted trusted rides from about 6 people for total of 200 miles. And that many of those were from people in her own company. And her company subsidizes her commute and grants her a few cents per mile.

The future of planet is saved

&&&&&&&&& More and Different USE cases &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

-- Flight Plan- GPS Ping Alice and Bob are traveling amateur anthropologists and want to travel in deepest Arkansas where there is no wireless service. They login to wiride/ithumb and plan a trip of 3 days. Noting that they will be back in 3 days. They wish to check in at that time and want their service to assure that they will be back OK... just like an air plane's flight plan. Note that GPS receipt is constant and logged, however wireless checkin will be spotty, and when reconnected will report the record of all the GPS waypoints.

++ Photo GPS Ping - the travelog. Trek through Iceland snap a photo every 3 to 6 hours with GPS location tagging. When wireless is resumed all photos are uploaded with location marks.

`` ++ Rendezvous mode. A family of 4 adults are traveling to NYC and each wants to do something else all day long. They each go their own ways... promise to meet up at 4 PM, They track each others progress. 3 out of 4 get tired sooner and meet up at a close cafe to all of them at 2 PM. Later they easily meet up with 2 friends coming into the city tracking their location as they go.

++ Stuck in traffic and I will be late. Kid is supposed to be picked up after soccer practice. Mom is not there. He logs on and sees that she is only a mile or so away.. checking the traffic map he sees she is in a traffic jam. He calls her and says he will start walking her way and they can meet nearby.

-- A planeload of WiRide/iThumb subscribers land in San Francisco...As the plane taxis to the gate, each logs on with their destination, and where they need to go and whether they will be renting a car or want to share a cab. wiride or ithumb.org fixes up all the matches for destinations. All in minutes. A few are left without a ride, they quickly negotiate banding together to share a cab. Cab company offers a discount to WiRide members. Everyone leaves the plane without carrying the carbon usage guilt from flying a plane.

-- Traveling cross country...people connect for cross country trip. Long pre-arranged with a calendar sharing. International travel vacations ... Swiss alps travelers, anyone on the road. South America, staying in a sleepy little town until a ride comes along... or until a passenger comes along.

-- Concerts, sports events, Festival, to and from,

-- Employees. volunteering for work parties.

-- Third world or other uses - India, China,

-- Rude Uses: ---
A Static and immobile person would use this to troll for trusted dates..Filtering and looking at the list of local people who are registered with the service. this assures some sort of trust.. and allows some voting and rating. A sex worker trolling for a client.. .looking for $200 gas money... The restraining factor is this is recorded in the database.
Figure that traveling in one spot is a hookup of trusted members. It is just a matter of what filters will be applied to the meeting.

This is a socially disruptive application.
It will change the way people travel and the way they meet.
It should reduce CO2 transportation consumption.
Taxi cab companies will not realize that it will actually help their business ( whenever no ride is available folks will call a cab)
+++++++++++++++ Legal Issues +++++++++++++

This is a tremendously disruptive application. Especially after horrendous gas prices, too many single occupancy vehicles on the road, as well as a souring economy, will all cause communities to look for radical solutions. Initial resistance will turn to widespread acceptance, especially if adopted globally first.

Since this may conflict with public transit systems, this may be shunned by governments, or forced into underground economy. No government entity would not want to support this (yet) because of both liability issues and that it competes with and draws revenue from public transportation... but if the need is great, this may not always be the case.

This could be offered by and administered by metropolitan transit agencies.

This could be offered by a large entity like Google, who would leverage travel and id info with targeted advertising

Privacy issues: Since this requires considerable ID verification and trust, there will be privacy concerns. State or Federal sponsorship might bless and help vector ID usage. Since liability issues are so great, ID verification should be optimal..

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Monetization Schemes \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Freakonomics analysis. Drivers accepting donations
Bid and Ask negotiations on the app... drivers offering $ prices, passengers offering $
Municipalities offering incentives to both passengers and Drivers
Companies offering same
State & Federal tax incentives.
////////////////// ISSUES ///////////////////////////////////////////////

++ US States will not share drivers license data with private companies.
Need to authenticate subscribers.
Then the states can run that part of the database,,, or we can just wait until transportation falls apart after fuel prices rise.
Confident that states will seek radical solutions.

++ Other nations maybe forthcoming. Britain, France, India, Brazil, China

++ Hacking and piracy... Spoofing?

++ Is the complexity too great? Could this be used by small govts.

"Saving civilization means cutting transportation energy, halting C02, everyone will have to double up, fill up cars for even the shortest trip, and network like crazy." Richard Pauli Huge changes required, or we are doomed. But have fun anyway