GoLoco

Chase did it again! (She was a Loeb fellow when I was a DDes candidate at Harvard Graduate School of Design… I am a fan!!!) She is a founder of Zipcar. With GoLoco, her new startup, she goes greener, also “to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel” while using social networking! Read the article in Newsweek, Baby, You Can Drive My Car_Via Web by Steven Levy. Excerpts:

Her idea was to let drivers and riders use the Web to turn solitary rides into shared ones, saving fuel and cutting costs. She’d also build a business by taking a cut of the fees that passengers on the site would pay drivers to share the costs. When brainstorming the company, she saw three obstacles to her goal: A fear of strangers. The difficulty of finding rides. And a feeling that the effort really isn’t worth it.

That last concern, she asserts, is no longer valid—awakened by the threat of climate crisis, lots of people are now eager to win greenie points.

[…] When you sign up for GoLoco, you submit a picture and share information about yourself from sites like Facebook and Flickr, as well as a list of groups you belong to. You speak into your computer mic to describe your favorite breakfast so that potential ride-sharers can hear your voice. You also indicate what other Olo’s you trust enough to ride with, so that others can see if you know people in common. Also, as you use GoLoco, drivers or passengers who accompany you will write reviews of your behavior, eBay style.