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Karhoo were trying to do far more than Uber. They were partnering with hundreds of minicab firms around London. Each firm was supposed to report their taxi's lo
by adwhit 10y ago
Karhoo were trying to do far more than Uber. They were partnering with hundreds of minicab firms around London. Each firm was supposed to report their taxi's locations and availabilities back to Karhoo at regular intervals. Karhoo then aimed to co-ordinate all this information along with real-time pricing for each, and present the user a range of options. And then dispatch a taxi, that actually arrives when they say it will. Without controlling the actual cars.
Most minicab firms in London do not have a server, they have a person sat at a desk with a phone and an Excel spreadsheet. Can you imagine trying to herd them all into use your platform correctly? Karhoo never had a chance.
For a while Karhoo became know as the "Free taxi app!" because of all their giveaways. But no-way would you use it if it wasn't free, because it was so unreliable.
- friendly_chap 10y agoThat sounds incredibly stupid. Why didnt they distribute an GPS coordinate sending app to said drivers?
- nigeljyng 10y agoThey couldn't do that. The cab companies they work with would be worried they're going direct to driver, which is what Uber's doing.
- pessimizer 10y agoOr something nice to replace the spreadsheet?