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ZotRider

Inspiration

I live at Plaza Verde and every time I need to get to LAX, I'm paying like $80-100 for an Uber by myself. That's a lot for a college student. I kept seeing people in random Discord servers and GroupMe chats asking "Anyone going to LAX this weekend?" and realized we're all trying to do the same thing - find someone to split an Uber with. But it was super messy because everyone was asking in different places. I thought, why isn't there just one app where UCI students can find each other and split rides? That's how ZotRider started.

What it does

ZotRider lets UCI students post where they're going and when, then matches them with other students heading the same way. Say you're going to LAX on Friday at 2pm - you post that, and the app finds other Anteaters going around the same time. You can split the Uber cost, so instead of paying $100 alone, you're paying $25-50. It works for airports, beach trips, daily commutes, whatever. Everyone's verified through UCI login so you know you're riding with actual students.

How we built it

We built the whole thing using Lovable, which was honestly perfect for a hackathon. Used React and TypeScript for the frontend with Tailwind for styling. For the backend, we went with Supabase because it handles authentication, database, and real-time updates all in one. The matching system finds people with similar routes and times, then sends notifications when there's a match. We integrated UCI SSO so only real students can sign up, and added Venmo/Zelle links to make splitting costs easy.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was figuring out the matching algorithm. At first, we only matched people going to the exact same place, but barely anyone matched. We had to make it smarter - now it looks at route overlap, so if you're going to Santa Monica and someone else is going to LAX, you can still share most of the ride. Getting the timing right was also tricky because everyone has slightly different schedules, so we added flexible time windows. And honestly, just making sure it felt safe and trustworthy was hard - we needed good verification and rating systems.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We actually built something that works and that we'd use ourselves. The matching algorithm is pretty smart - it finds route overlaps and calculates fair cost splits automatically. We got UCI SSO working so it's actually verified students only. And the whole app just feels smooth and polished, not like a typical hackathon project. We tested it with some friends and they were already asking when they could start using it for real.

What we learned

I learned a ton about building real-time features and working with location data. The matching algorithm taught me about geospatial calculations and optimizing for different use cases. We also learned that when you're building something for safety-sensitive stuff like ridesharing, you have to think way more about trust and verification than we initially did. And Lovable was honestly amazing for rapid prototyping - we could iterate on the UI super fast.

What's next for ZotRider

We want to add recurring rides so people can set up regular commutes, like "Every Monday morning, Plaza Verde to campus." A carbon footprint tracker would be cool to show the environmental impact. We're also thinking about expanding beyond just rides - maybe Costco runs or grocery delivery where people can split costs. But first, we need to actually launch this and get real UCI students using it to see what they actually need.