Light Up your car
Designing A Better Way For Car-hailing In Bad Weather Days
Chi Weiting
play video
When using car-hailing apps under specific circumstances, many passengers might have an inconvenient experience finding their driver. For example, during the winter of Canada, people do not want to spend too much time looking for their driver in minus 30 degrees Celsius. Or, in a crowded place, passengers may find dozens of similar black Hondas waiting for them, and in this project, implementing a function of a car-hailing app to help people deal with those circumstances. This function allows passengers to use their phones to light up the lights on the top of the corresponding vehicle.
Video
Design Context
Nowadays, online car-hailing apps have been widely used all around the world. They skillfully take advantage of the Internet to change the traditional way of traveling by taxi. However, in some particular places, there are some problems with those online car-hailing apps. For instance, one of the most considered problems in Alberta, Canada, is finding the corresponding driver or passenger is hard.
In this project, the main goal is to improve car-hailing apps according to some special situations in Canada. In order to help users find their driver or passenger in a more convenient way.
The difficulty of getting a taxi in winter in Canada while Using car-hailing in Alberta, CA
Under bad weather conditions, such as rain, snowing, or low temperature will increase the inconvenience of finding corresponding drivers or passengers. Especially in this situation, passengers are reluctant to spend too much time finding corresponding cars.
In Alberta, Canada, winter can be as long as eight months, the daytime temperatures range is around -5°C to -15°C, sometimes it can be as low as from -30°C to -40°C. Also, snowfall can see up to 9 m. During this freezing weather, it is a torment for passengers to confirm the corresponding cars outdoors for a long time.
Increasing the difficulty for both drivers and passengers to find each other while the pickup location is bustling.
In a bustling place of Edmonton, such as the city center, West Edmonton Mall, sports stadiums Oilers, usually have a large volume of people, increasing the demand of using car-hailing apps. Since a lot of people use the app at the same time, in the same place, it increases the inconvenience for drivers to identify passengers. Also, passengers need to spend more time confirming the corresponding cars.
Drivers and Passengers can not find each other quickly with poor visibility.
At midnight, on a foggy day, or in any poor visible environment, drivers and passengers can not have clear visibility. Especially for drivers, they can not see the passengers clearly if they drive in a bad visible environment, they possibly would miss the passenger.
1.2 Case Study - Uber’s solution
Uber Beacon
Drivers will put Uber Beacon on the windshield. Passengers can choose their own pickup colors for the Beacon to glow on the driver’s car. Using color pairing technology to help drivers and passengers find each other quickly.
Tech Specifications
Uber Beacon uses Beacon SDK to handle Bluetooth LE connectivity and communication between the user’s app and Beacon. Bluetooth is the primary technology for wireless data communication of the Beacon.
1.3 Limitations of Uber Beacon in the case of Canadian winter
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The Brightness of the Beacon is not strong enough
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The Beacon blocks some views of the driver’s perspective, so the Beacon is not widely used
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The button of the software is not apparent enough, few people know this functions
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The colour of Beacon may be the same as other’s passengers
Target Users
According to the questionnaire results on the convenience of the car-hailing app, all respondents live in Canada and have extensive experience in using the car-hailing app. Also, 90% of the users of the car-hailing app are under 30 years old. However, the result shows that more than half of the users of Uber don’t know or are not familiar with Uber Beacon. Also, in some special situations, most users find it difficult or not very convenient to find their corresponding drivers.
Bio
She is a third-year university student; her hometown and university are in different cities. She currently lives with her friend, and none of them has a car. She also gets a part-time job in a shopping mall.
Tech
Goals
· Pickup by the driver as soon as possible
· Arrive at the destination on time
· Have a safe trip
Pain Points
· Lazy to confirm license plate number before pickup
· Hard to find her driver out of the shopping mall
Traffic Habits
Bio
He is a worker in an oil company. He lives with his family; he has a 7-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter. There are two cars in his family. He likes to talk with people, and he is free after work.
Tech
Goals
· Find the corresponding passenger quickly
· Pickup the correct passenger
· Have a high order acceptance rate
Pain Points
· Have to confirm passenger’s name by asking the name
· Hard to find his passenger in tricky pickup locations
Traffic Habits
Usage Scenarios
Drivers
Passengers
1. It was snowing outside, Jenny, who had just finished class, decided to make an appointment for a pickup car on a car-hailing app to go home.
4. At this time, Jenny decided to open the car-hailing app and click on the light bulb button.
2. Jenny got a message from the app that her driver was about to arrive at the pickup location.
5. After Jenny clicked the button, the light on the top of her car was lit up.
3. But in this cold weather, Jenny doesn’t like to wait and find her driver by confirming the license plate number, which is at the back of the car.
6. Jenny knew where her pickup car was, and went directly to her car.
1. This was a bustling place on a commercial street. Jenny just finished shopping and wanted to go home by hailing a car on a car-hailing app.
2. Jenny got a message from the app that her driver was about to arrive at the pick-up location.
3. But when Jenny thought that she might find dozens of pick-up cars and needed to verify which one was hers in this crowded place, she just became unhappy.
4. At this time, Jenny decided to open the car-hailing app and click on the light bulb button.
5. After Jenny clicked the button, the light on the top of her car was lit up.
6. Jenny could find her pick-up car in this bustling place, and she went directly to her car.
1. It was a foggy night and the visibility was very low. Jenny just finished her friend’s birthday party. She wanted to go home by hailing a car.
4. At this time, Jenny decided to open the car-hailing app and click on the light bulb button.
2. Jenny got a message from the app that her driver was about to arrive at the pick-up location.
5. After Jenny clicked the button, the light on the top of her car was lit up.
3. But in this low visibility situation, Jenny worried that she could not confirm her pick-up car quickly.
6. Jenny could see the light from the top of her pick-up car and she went directly to the car.
Arduino Prototype
Arduino Testing
Prepare all the required hardware materials.
Connecting the HC-05 module base on the left circuit diagram
Design the circuit diagram for HC-05 Bluetooth set up
Setting HC-05 Bluetooth module on Arduino IDE
Design the circuit diagram for HC-05 Bluetooth and a LED light
Connecting the HC-05 module and LED based on the left circuit diagram