Uber and Lyft bill themselves as ride-sharing services. But when you get down to it, they are really taxi apps because drivers make trips that they would not otherwise be making in exchange for a fee . For that reason, many have argued that we shouldn’t even consider them part of the sharing economy.

“What transportation really needs is real-time ride-sharing,” says Matan Field, who co-founded La’Zooz, a platform that aims to offer just that.

The “real-time” part of real-time ride-sharing means that people find cars on the go, with no prior planning. The “sharing” part means that drivers aren’t doing it as part of a commercial enterprise, a la Uber.





“Real-time ride-sharing can solve congestion and reduce rush hour traffic by decreasing the number of cars on the road,” he says. “Uber’s strategy is actually increasing the number of cars on the road because there are more people driving around looking for riders, just like taxis.”

The holy grail of ride-sharing is being able to see at any given moment who is already making the same trip you would like to make. With that information and a platform capable of it, drivers with spare seats can find would-be riders willing to pay for a portion of their trip.

It’s a win-win, says Field. “For riders it will be as cheap as a bus and as convenient as a taxi, while drivers save a large fraction of the cost of their commute.”

The obstacle is getting a critical mass of people in any one location on the same platform at the same time. Previous attempts at real-time ride-sharing have failed for that reason. Other services, thinking it’s not possible to achieve, have made compromises on the concept.