ENGINEERING - TECHNOLOGY

Recent Surge in Scheduling Apps

Recent Surge in Scheduling Apps

Introduction

The increased use of smartphones has allowed companies working with the development of technology to begin to think of tools and applications in order to facilitate the daily lives of citizens, such as urban mobility. One of these solutions is applications for taxi requests, which have spread through the main American cities and gaining membership of both taxi drivers as passengers. In a year of investments lean even for financing starups in Brazil, at least this sector can not complain (Anwar, 2013).

The idea of the applications came from abroad for at least two years. They are among the pioneers Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar. In U.S., one of the first to emerge in the market was the Taximov, created in July 2011 by the company and flows. However, only in 2012 the demand caused the boom applications that happened in less than a year. At least ten are available in the market, mostly in New York and Michigan. But the expansion has already begun to achieve in the capital of the South, Midwest, North and Northeast (Kelly, 2013).

Discussion & Analysis

Even in large cities, where the supply of taxis is usually high find a free car on the street and it can be a difficult task. It tends to get worse during the nights of Friday or on weekends, when all prefer to leave their cars at home to enjoy the evening away from the wheel. Some people also do not feel safe enough to ask for taxis on the street during the night, which can make the wait for a contact from a cooperative even greater (Ali et al. 2013).

But the situation is changing with the arrival of various applications for taxi, which promise to make a bridge between user and taxi driver in a few taps on the smartphone, in which some of the best known to many American cities, free and running in two major mobile operating systems market (Li & Yan, 2012).

Uber

One of the best known applications of the type, Uber only works in the city of New York, but promises to put the passenger in a taxi in just two taps on the phone. After installing the app, you will need to make a record, which can also be completed through Facebook. Then the service will check to see if the phone is valid (Ye et al. 2013).

With a validated mobile, just enter your current location on the main screen of the app and wait for a taxi driver called the next meet. When any driver confirms the race, you will receive a message with name, car model, cell and a photo of a taxi driver. It is also possible to follow in real time the position of the driver through the app, which uses the phone's GPS in the car to determine its location (Kelly, 2013).

Lyft

Originally launched in Athens, Greece, where it was created in 2011, Lyft landed in Michigan, ...