That means fewer roadblocks to making semi-autonomous or autonomous bus fleets a potentiality. Meanwhile, his short-haul bus trips (or even longer haul bus trips) are akin to a truck route - primarily a single lane on a highway. “What’s interesting is that self-driving technology in cars is the most complicated because you’re dealing with the most variables,” according to Nestler. The company is also trying to find ways to upgrade these fleets and look at making these buses electrified and autonomous or semi-autonomous, Nestler said. “Each bus asset sits idle 75% of its life,” Nestler said.įrom its experience building out a database of all of these private charter companies, Skedaddle now has a nationwide network it can pull from. Idle Buses Are An Entrepreneurs PlaythingĮach bus asset sits idle 75% of its life. “As we grow density and users in each city… this becomes as reliable as a schedule without a schedule,” Nestler said. Private trips can be scheduled for any number of people, and Nestler says the bulk of the company’s business is coming from public trips. The chartered rides max out at 54 seats per trip. Once a group of 10 is booked, the ride will happen and anyone else can come along. Initially someone planning a public trip can post their route on the app (in a bid to encourage user adoption, the person who plans the trip rides for free), and then enlists at least 9 other people to come along (at a discounted rate). Users can think of Skedaddle as a Lyft line or Uber pool for either a public or private weekend getaway. Initially begun as a website, the company is transitioning to an app-only business ( aided with a new $2.1 million round of funding from investors led by Arena Ventures). “We had to rent a car and it was a pain in the butt or it was expensive. We wanted to touch a button on our phone and ride with others traveling in the same direction.”Īnd so Skedaddle was born. “Every time we wanted to leave the city, it was expensive,” said Adam Nestler. It’s a world filled with music festivals, art festivals, ski weekends, beach weekends and all the other thousand pleasures that kids packed five-a-person into one-bedroom lofts in posh (or not-so-posh) or hipster (and not-so-hipster) neighborhoods dotting the Eastern seaboard can never experience in their commuter train/bus/light-rail and Lyft-or-Uber bound existence. The idea initially was to tap into the demand from folks looking for a way out of their blasted urban hellscapes and out into the world of the weekender. Launched by a clutch of east coast entrepreneurs led by Adam Nestler, his brother Craig, Brad Werntz and Lou Harwood, Skedaddle began two years ago as a way to bring millennials onto the festival express. And now, what Uber and Lyft have done for ride-sharing inside cities and towns across America, startups like Skedaddle want to do for ride-sharing across America. It was only a matter of time before the same forces that brought competition to the taxi industry turned their attention to the bus business. Big bus companies better watch out, because the tech industry now seems to have them squarely in their sights.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |