01
The problem
44% of rides drove empty while riders searched, saw nothing, and left.
Overview
A rideshare app that couldn't connect its own users
Moober is UC Davis's student-only rideshare, used by 2,000+ students to carpool home or split a ride to the airport. I redesigned the search that matches riders with drivers.
02
What I did
Search now follows each driver's whole route and sorts results into three tiers.
03
Where it stands
Designed and handed off to engineering. The feature is now in build.
Solution
Match on the whole route, not just the city.
Before Search Fresno. Nothing.
After Same search. Rides along the route, tiered.
Three honest tiers
Best match first, and every card says plainly what kind of match it is.
Tier 01
Direct match
Going exactly where the rider is going. This is all the old search could show.
Tier 02
On your route
Headed somewhere else, like LA, but passing through Fresno within the driver's detour limit.
Tier 03
Nearby
Ends close by, and the card says exactly how far, so the rider decides before booking.
Problem
It wasn't a supply problem. It was a search problem.
PostHog, April 2026
44%
of listed rides drove empty, even with plenty of riders on the app.
Search only matched the exact destination city. A driver heading to LA passed right through Fresno, but a rider in Fresno never saw the ride.
What riders told us
We interviewed riders we recruited with a gift card giveaway.
From riders
The ride drove right past him
One student drove to LA to catch a ride that passed through his hometown.
From riders
One dead end was enough
Another searched once, saw nothing, and assumed the app was dead.
The question
How might we give students more ride options and fill their search results?
Explorations
Other ideas we weighed
Dropped
Static zones
Too imprecise. Close on a map isn't close in traffic.
Dropped
Manual waypoints
More steps for drivers, and drivers are the supply.
Shipped alongside
Request board
Too slow on its own, so it launched next to search to fill the gaps.
How it works
Two sides had to change: what riders see, and what drivers allow.
Riders: what the search shows
123401Radius sliderRiders widen the net themselves, up to 30 miles.
02Result countHow many rides fit, across all three tiers.
03Tier badgesEvery result says what kind of match it is.
04The whole routeEach card shows the driver's path and where the rider fits on it.
Drivers: how far they'll go
The call
Driver sets the limit
5, 15, or 30 minutes. They carry the cost, so they hold the dial.
Ruled out
Rider-requested detours
They would turn every booking into a negotiation.
The constraint
3,000 free map lookups a day
Only Tier 2 needs the paid map service. The other tiers use free distance math.
Takeaways
What I took away
Constraints are design material. A limit of 3,000 free map lookups a day, found early with engineering, is the reason the tiers exist.
Honesty is a feature. Showing the mileage gap up front trades a little polish for a lot more trust.
What's next. After launch, I'll watch whether riders who find rides actually book them.
Team
The team behind it
A startup is mostly its people. Ours: the team, a trip to SF, and a thoroughly unserious promo reel.
