Photographs by Baerbel Schmidt Robin Chase started Zipcar in 1999. Today, the Web-enabled, hourly rental service has 50,000 users in 10 cities. Now Chase aims to do for carpooling what she did for car-sharing: make it hip. Wired asked for a crash course on her new venture, GoLoco.
WIRED: Zipcar was in high gear when you left the company in 2003. Why'd you decide to go?
CHASE: I had set it on its path, and I was crisped, burned out.
What came next?
I started looking at issues of congestion, sprawl, and climate change. They're very complicated. So how do you make changes? When it comes to cars and travel, people will dramatically change their driving behaviors when the real costs are made clear to them.
But carpooling creeps people out. Or the driver gets screwed out of the cost of the ride.
So GoLoco matches up drivers and passengers, and it does all the money stuff behind the scenes through online accounts. There's no discussion of money in the car, no negotiation — it's all done up front. The other important piece is that we're afraid to ride with strangers. So — duh — social networks. Our Web site gives context: pictures of faces, voice clips, employment.
Frankly, that sounds as time-consuming as online dating. Why would anyone do it?
In the US, cars create 20 percent of CO2 emissions. But a car loaded to capacity is the most efficient form of motorized transportation. And people are desperate for ways to cut expenses.
What does GoLoco get?
It's free if the driver doesn't charge the passengers. Otherwise, we take a 10 percent fee. On the Web site, we have a box that says, "The Average Costs of This Trip Are." The people riding along pay their share to us and to the driver right on the site. We also show you how many tree-months' worth of CO2 you save by sharing the ride.
Sounds great, until you get sued after the first accident.
The lawyers tell me we're a broker, so all responsibility lies with users — you're choosing rides on intuition and references. The lawyers also say we won't get sued until we're big.
__You're not much of a fan of driving, are you? __
I've been in too many car accidents — four bad ones, all with fatalities.
Do you own a car?
A minivan. It's mortifying.
What kind?
I don't know. A Ford? I have three kids, but we've never owned two cars. We've talked about going to zero. We're all hypocrites, me as well.
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