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Welcome to the Carpool wiki!
Wiki for the requirements specification of the project (SRS Document).
This wiki lists all the technologies used in the project, along with short explanations and links to the respective documentation.
Wiki for the project architecture structure.
This wiki describes all the features the project was broken into and how they were implemented.
Before implementing the project, our group had to research the task at hand: Designing an application that allows students to join, create and find trips. We first had to understand the meaning of carpooling, as well as the benefits of carpooling. We needed to figure out how our application(Carpool) differed from existing applications such as Uber and Bolt. Since the application is primarily for students, we needed to find a way to verify that a user is a student. Finally, we needed to decide how we would build trust among passengers and drivers within the application.
As a university student one will undoubtedly face the challenge of surviving on a constrained budget. This issue has been further exacerbated in the last few years with the advent of the Corona Virus pandemic. Our project results from identifying traveling as a large cause of expense. The price of petrol rising exponentially over the last few years has especially put a large strain on the finances of many. From July 2014 to July 2018, the price of petrol saw an increase of just R1,94 per liter. However, from July 2018 to July 2022, the price of petrol saw an unprecedented increase of R10,07 per liter. As such this project seeks to lessen the financial strain that students could face from traveling. Carpooling was identified as a way to lessen this cost for university students. Carpooling is a method of sharing unoccupied seats in a car with people who would commute along the same route. As a result of this, everyone who joins the ride would reach their desired destination at a fraction of the cost while also lessening carbon emissions as fewer cars would be on the road. Carpooling can be very difficult to get involved with as it requires finding people who are traveling from the same starting location as you to the same destination, at the same time. This application, Carpool, is the solution that we have developed for this problem. Carpool is a mobile application that helps students find affordable transport to and from campus or longer trips such as returning home for a semester break. Carpool provides students with a central location whereby they can post, find, and join safe car trips. This application allows students with vehicles to save on petrol costs as well as provide affordable transportation to students who do not have vehicles. Since it is targeted at university students, it also imposes security features that are not found in its competitors. Registration is restricted to those with valid student emails which can be verified. Upon registering, the user would have their own account which will allow them to join trips that have been posted. This is to cater to students who may not have their own car or may not have access to reliable transportation to their desired destinations. Should users have cars and want to split the cost of their own trips with others who may want to join their trip as a passenger, they can register to be a driver. This will involve uploading pictures of their ID and driver’s license. Upon completing this registration, they will be allowed to post trips they are planning and allow other users to request to join their trip at the driver’s requested price. This fulfills the needs of both the driver and the passengers as the driver completes a trip that they would have done regardless while splitting the costs with passengers who get to their desired location at a reasonable price while being driven by someone who is connected to a trustworthy institution. The driver will be allowed to review the request to join and approve or decline it based on the passenger’s profile and reviews of the said passenger. This will ensure that the driver is comfortable with the users that they will let join their trip. The payment of the trip is restricted to online, card transactions which will be handled by Pay-fast to minimize the risk of fraud or users refusing payment of drivers. When the trip has been confirmed, there will be a group chat created in the application which will allow all trip participants to communicate with each other should there be a need. Once the trip has concluded, both parties may review each other which includes leaving optional comments which will be viewed by any user who views the reviewed parties’ profiles. This will create a trust-based environment and a sense of community within the application’s users. By the time the users have completed the trip, all parties will have benefited monetarily and in terms of convenience compared to using many other alternatives, while maintaining a sense of safety in knowing that they are with fellow students who share many of their challenges and joys.
The carpool application is available for all IOS device users on TestFlight. TestFlight can be downloaded from the App Store. However, we need to send you an invitation so that you can download the application. Please send our team leader Benjamin, an email requesting an invitation.
Please scan the QR code below.
The QR code will prompt you into downloading the APK for your android device.
Once the APK has been downloaded, extract it and install the application on your device.
In order to participate in the development of the project, one can download the source code from the GitHub repository. If one then makes changes to the code, such as, modifying existing features, removing features, or adding new functionality, then one should email the team leader Benjamin about the new development, as well as send him the code. We as a team will then discuss these modifications, and decide if it is suitable enough to be added to the repository. Benjamin’s email can be taken from the README, or the cover page of any of the documentation found on the README.