Carma Technology Corporation is a real-time transportation technology company headquartered in Cork, Ireland. Its flagship product, Carma Carpooling, matches users with nearby commuters and enables them to share the cost of driving. Carma also has offices in San Francisco, California and Austin, Texas.

Company history

Formerly known as Avego, the company was founded in 2007 by Sean O'Sullivan as a research and development division of the company Mapflow. In April 2009, Avego became a separate entity associated with

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of ...

. Its real-time carpooling service first served the University community in the form of an iPhone application, with seats priced by mileage. In January 2011, Avego and the

Washington State Department of Transportation The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...

launched a pilot

carpool Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usi ...

program, called "go520," serving the

Washington State Route 520 State Route 520 (SR 520) is a state highway and freeway in the Seattle metropolitan area, part of the U.S. state of Washington. It runs from Seattle in the west to Redmond in the east. The freeway connects Seattle to the Eastside region ...

corridor outside

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. Financial subsidies of $30 monthly were available to both drivers and riders for the duration of the pilot. In October 2011, Avego began a

ing pilot in the Arlington Potomac Yard area. In mid-2012, Avego implemented the largest carpooling project to date in Santa Barbara,

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa, California, Santa Rosa. It is to the n ...

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

, and

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

, California. It was administered by

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

and the MTC. In August 2013, the company changed its name to Carma, unveiling a new corporate identity in the process. In February 2014, Carma introduced an automated tolling discount program for carpoolers in Austin, Texas, in conjunction with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA). After unprecedented success, the tolling initiative then expanded to Austin's Manor Expressway in May 2014. In June 2014, Carma opened up its API to third-party developers and unveiled the Carma Prize Fund – a $2.5m stimulus program aimed at boosting ridesharing activity around the world.

Product areas

Overview

Carma produces real-time information and management systems that use

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

Geographic Information Systems A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. In a br ...

, Internet and iPhone technologies to facilitate a shift from single-occupancy vehicles to

sustainable transport Sustainable transport refers to ways of transportation that are sustainable in terms of their social and environmental impacts. Components for evaluating sustainability include the particular vehicles used for road, water or air transport; th ...

Carma Carpooling

Carma's flagship product is a carpooling app that matches drivers and riders, enabling people to make car transportation more efficient and affordable. The company states on its website that Carma's mission is "to enable people around the world to break free from the tyranny of the modern commute".

Fees

According to the Carma Terms of service, proceeds of the rider(s) payment (consisting of fixed charge per trip and a variable per mile fee) is split between the driver (85%) and the company (15%).

Smartphone App

The company introduced its "Shared Transport" app at the DEMOfall 2008 conference in September 2008. It enables on-demand carpooling. It works by automatically matching a driver's spare seat capacity with a passenger's desire to travel the same route at the same time. Drivers are provided with a price incentive in the form of electronic micropayments from riders at the end of each journey. In December 2008, the iPhone app was released as a free download at Apple's

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...

and was featured prominently in the New York Times and other major media outlets. In April 2010, the app was awarded the ITS America Smart Solutions Spotlight Award by the

Intelligent Transportation Society of America The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) is a Washington, D.C. based membership and advocacy group for the development and deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in the United States. ITS America was esta ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official site
Information technology companies of Ireland