HN Explorer

Would You Use an On-Demand Designated Driver for You and Your Car?

1 points by ignaciovdk ↗ HN
I’m exploring the feasibility of an on-demand designated driver service aimed at solving a common dilemma: what happens to your car when you decide to enjoy a drink or two? Instead of leaving your vehicle behind or risking hefty fines, this service would send a driver on an electric scooter to your location, allowing them to drive you and your car home safely.

I’d love to hear the Hacker News community’s thoughts on this concept:

- Is this a service you’d consider using? - What would you expect in terms of pricing? (Flat fee, distance-based, hourly?) - What challenges or opportunities do you see in scaling a service like this?

Here’s a quick rundown of the idea:

- Drivers arrive at your location via electric scooter or electric bike. - They stow their scooter in your car and drive you to your destination. - Once you’re home, they use the scooter to get to their next assignment.

Preliminary Pricing Ideas: - Base Fee: $10–15 - Additional Charges: $1–2 per kilometer OR $10–15 per hour - We’re considering a pilot launch in cities where alcohol-related driving laws are strict, like Montevideo or Santiago, but I’d love to hear if this idea resonates with a broader audience.

In China, services like this are quite popular, but I would love to have a broad insights.

Looking forward to your insights and feedback!

6 comments

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ada1981
How can you test this with real potential customers?
ignaciovdk
Hi, great questions. We are running a few actions to understand if theres a need for this, then, a MVP with the team + a few extra drivers should help to understand that a little bit more, what do you think?
ada1981
I’d test it in one market, or even one bar, and see if people use it.
mc3301
There's a similar system in Japan called "Daiko" in which two drivers show up in one car. One driver drives your car with you in it, and the other follows.

This involves the wages of 2 people plus car, but you could add it in your research phase.

3000
there was a company doing exactly this in brighton (uk) when i lived there about 10 years ago. great idea, not sure what happened to them though.