I started a web/touchtone/sms carpool app called mobileride.com in 2005. It was a pretty simple app, where people would call or sms and use a numbering system t

I started a web/touchtone/sms carpool app called mobileride.com in 2005. It was a pretty simple app, where people would call or sms and use a numbering system to set trip from/to and then wait for a double-ended call from the server with a match. The first problem I ran into was that it was illegal to set a price or facilitate a financial transaction for a ride. The next problem was liability. IVR call time was around $.05-.25/min so I was on a modest burn rate. There were some other possibilities like charge numbers or advertising, but this wasn’t an immediate solution. In the end I had enough calls to burn down my savings, but not enough to make many real-time connections. My guess is that real-time user density is the real issue, and someone will achieve it. I shut it down with dreams of relaunching more as a lifestyle app like couchsurfing than a practical travel solution.