Warwick University app supports ride-sharing for the drive to campus

A free app that will allow Warwick students to share rides between Leamington and Campus is set to launch in January 2017 for iPhone and Android users.

Any Warwick student will be able to sign up for the app, called UniDrive, using their Warwick email address. The app will operate on a feedback system, and will have measures to ensure passenger and driver safety.

UniDrive has been designed by a team of four, led by a recent graduate of Warwick Business School, Paul Hayat. Another Warwick student, second-year Computer Science student Elena Odier, is the marketing officer. The remaining two members, the programmers of the app, are students at a graduate school in Paris.

The service’s launch press release said: “Many students drive to campus every day with empty seats in their car, whilst others waste huge amounts of time taking public transport. The app connects those drivers and passengers to offer students a better alternative to current methods of transportation.”

Founder Paul Hayat told The Boar, a tech blog, that when it launches, users of the app will pay their drivers in cash, and UniDrive will take no commission. But once the app is established, they will seek to integrate payments into the design along the same lines as apps like Uber. “At the moment, making money is not our objective,” he said. “We want to test the app and see if it works.”

The founders say the app will benefit students by being more reliable, comfortable, sociable, affordable and environmentally friendly than taking a bus to campus.

From market research undertaken before the launch, UniDrive say 65% of Warwick students are not satisfied with current transport options, and that 84% would be willing to share a car with other students.

The app has no investors, and is funded with the team’s own money.