Editing Open-Source Taxi App

The goal of this research is to determine:

* Issues with current taxi apps and business models
* what open-source taxi app alternatives exist, to what extent they have been successful and if not, the reasons for not achieving success and the challenges they have faced
* what it would take to make such an initiative successful from a technical, legal, human resources and operational perspective
* if we should take an existing solution and modify it, or develop from scratch

==== Corporate Business Models and their Issues ====
According to [https://www.businessofapps.com/data/taxi-app-market/ this] website, there are 300 million users of taxi apps with Uber and DiDi responsible for 150 million of those users. The taxi app market size is expected to be $283 billion by 2028. Often these apps take a large portion of the fare (a lot of information is available for this for example [https://www.reddit.com/r/uberdrivers/comments/176v58t/uber_takes_a_huge_cut_of_our_earnings_these_days/ <nowiki>[1]</nowiki>], [https://www.labor.ucla.edu/press-release/ucla-labor-center-report-finds-that-uber-lyft-are-pocketing-a-larger-share-of-passenger-fares-for-nyc-trips <nowiki>[2]</nowiki>], [https://www.crainsnewyork.com/transportation/uber-lyft-pocketed-larger-portion-fares-after-driver-pay-minimums-took-effect-report <nowiki>[3]</nowiki>]). Some taxi companies take a smaller commission e.g. DiDi takes about 20% ([https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3246921/baidus-live-streaming-ambitions-dealt-blow-lapse-us36-billion-deal-buy-joyys-yy-live?campaign=3246921&module=perpetual_scroll_1_AI&pgtype=article source]), compared to Uber and Lyft's 40 to 60% ([https://www.ridester.com/how-much-do-uber-drivers-make/ source]) and this shows its possible to take less commission. Many people believe that open-source taxi apps with more transparent, fair and lean business models should exist with minimum fees that are fully and available for examination/audit. Many have wondered and inquired if such apps exist ([https://robertmcgrath.wordpress.com/2017/05/23/open-source-alternatives-to-uber/ <nowiki>[1]</nowiki>], [https://www.google.com/search?q=open+source+alternative+to+uber+site%3Areddit.com&sca_esv=380cea29b142b78e&sxsrf=AM9HkKlxg--_3wG31GMZGGvqMp8mtU6VFw%3A1704586563449&source=hp&ei=Q-2ZZcvnGNaZwbkP4oKI6Ao&iflsig=AO6bgOgAAAAAZZn7U4M5JYIeCMPdZwYFLJWJxUynWkp5&ved=0ahUKEwiLlefk_8mDAxXWTDABHWIBAq0Q4dUDCAw&uact=5&oq=open+source+alternative+to+uber+site%3Areddit.com&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6Ii9vcGVuIHNvdXJjZSBhbHRlcm5hdGl2ZSB0byB1YmVyIHNpdGU6cmVkZGl0LmNvbUieCVCVB1iVB3ABeACQAQCYAUOgAUOqAQExuAEDyAEA-AEC-AEBqAIKwgIHECMY6gIYJw&sclient=gws-wiz <nowiki>[2]</nowiki>] etc).

It doesn't seem like there are any open-source business models that have been successful. Various projects exist on [https://github.com/topics/taxi-app?o=desc&s=stars Github] but there's no real-world execution/follow-up and user adoption which is understood. A successful widely adopted taxi app requires more than just a working taxi app.

==== LibreTaxi ====
The most famous open-source taxi app [https://libretaxi.org/ LibreTaxi] is actually not an app. Its a Telegram service (user needs to have the Telegram messaging app). A taxi app should be easy to use/intuitive (working through a messaging/chat interface to get a taxi ride is not intuitive). Its also not clear if LibreTaxi has been successful in user adoption although it deserves support as its a free open-source project. Here's an [https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Libre_Taxi interview] with the developer

==== Notable Alternatives ====
* [https://wridz.com '''Wridz'''] - lets the driver keep 100% of the fare and tips but charges the driver a variable subscription fee (e.g. $25 to $100/month). Gaining gradual adoption in big cities but there's no open-source code and its a regular corporate entity (not community owned)

==== Misc Links ====
* [research] [https://etrr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12544-021-00522-1 A systematic literature review of ride-sharing platforms, user factors and barriers] (2021)
* [https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/02/mit-study-shows-how-much-driving-for-uber-or-lyft-sucks/ MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks] (2018)

==== Next Steps ====
The next step is to examine any existing source code and use that or start from scratch. Someone wrote a [https://medium.com/@pawaryogita309/where-can-i-get-an-open-source-uber-taxi-booking-app-clone-for-android-ios-with-a-web-panel-5f2e9c705051 development guide].

; From previous edits/page:
==Links==
;Source Code
* [Defunct] [https://www.facebook.com/werideaustin/ '''Ride Austin'''] - ''"nonprofit rideshare service created by the Austin community."'' See comments here on [https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/z0okcf/what_happened_to_rideaustin_app/ Reddit] - [https://github.com/ride-austin '''Github Source code''']

* Flutterbase taxi: https://github.com/YakivGalkin/flutterbase-taxi   ([https://medium.com/@yakiv.galkin/flutter-taxi-app-built-from-scratch-in-under-30-hours-of-coding-ed6f4276f83f related article by author])
* [https://github.com/libreapp/libreapp libreapp] (github); main websites seem to have gone down
* https://libretaxi.org/ (cash only) - [https://github.com/ro31337/libretaxi Source code]
* Saffar taxi app: https://github.com/Saffar-Org/saffar_app ([https://flutterawesome.com/an-open-source-taxi-booking-application-using-flutter/ article])

Misc:
* Related Apps on Github: https://github.com/topics/ridesharing
* [https://www.drife.io/ drife.io] - "Decentralizing Ride-hailing Experience" (no commission but source code isnt available)

===To do===
* [https://www.google.com/search?q=open+source+taxi+site%3Areddit.com&oq=open+source+taxi+site%3Areddit.com&aqs=chrome..69i57.149j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 open source taxi site:reddit.com]
** names of any existing open-source apps
** Read people's opinions, copy paste important stuff, challenges faced etc
We need to start a unit for the Javul Transport Service App which will be Javul certified. This can be used for multiple situations. Uber's CEO has a net worth of $6.3 billion. Drivers do not want to use businesses that take 20-30% of their hard-earned money. If successful, this initiative will be a very good example of what people can do using Javul. The goal will be to show that it is possible to create a successful organization with these characteristics: 
# Complete commitment to customer satisfaction (both employees and users of the service are considered to be customers) 
# Let customers make high-level and low-level decisions for the company as a group so there is no need of high-paid executives and CEOs 
# Let employees retain the money that they earned using their own hard work. Use code from open-source Taxi app libretaxi (first check if we can improve this project or if we have to create our own project based on this app)

Steps:
* Do survey of existing open-source and commercial transport and taxi apps (ride-share, food delivery, package delivery)
* Do a survey of existing initiatives for apps like this
* Start the project. If possible, use LibreTaxi source code as a base