Ride-Sharing User Selection Balancing Round-Trip and One-Way Reservations
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Solution Overview
Problem
In ride-sharing services that combine round-trip and one-way car sharing, users who desire one-way sharing often remain unmatched, leading to inefficiencies where vehicles are not returned to their departure points, causing other users to be unable to reach their destinations.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus and method that receives car sharing reservations for both round-trip and one-way services, matching users with a selection unit that balances the number of round-trip and one-way users sharing a vehicle based on predetermined conditions, such as vehicle availability and location, to ensure efficient ride-sharing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users who desire round-trip car sharing are matched with priority, then the vehicle is guaranteed to be returned to the departure place, but users who desire one-way car sharing remain unmatched and cannot reach their destinations
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the matching parameters by introducing a balanced selection criterion that considers both round-trip and one-way users equally. Instead of prioritizing round-trip users, the system selects users based on a combination of trip type, pickup location, and drop-off location, ensuring that the number of one-way users does not exceed the number of round-trip users while still maximizing overall user matching efficiency.
2Productivity
If users who desire one-way car sharing are matched with priority, then more users can reach their destinations, but vehicles are not returned to departure places, causing future users to be unable to access vehicles
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring the balance between round-trip and one-way users in each vehicle. The selection unit adjusts matching decisions based on real-time information about user composition, ensuring that one-way users are matched only when their number does not exceed the number of round-trip users. This feedback mechanism maintains vehicle availability while maximizing user mobility.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system provides both round-trip and one-way car sharing services, then user flexibility is improved, but the complexity of user matching increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the user base into distinct categories (round-trip users and one-way users) and applies different matching criteria to each segment. By dividing the matching process into separate evaluation steps for each user type and their respective requirements, the system manages the complexity of providing flexible services while maintaining organized and efficient matching operations.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is an information processing apparatus including a reception unit configured to receive a use reservation of car sharing including designation of any one of round-trip car sharing and one-way car sharing, designation of a pickup location, and designation of a drop-off location from a user and store the use reservation in a use reservation database, and a selection unit configured to select, as users who share a ride in a vehicle, both of a first user who has made a use reservation for designating round-trip car sharing and a second user who has made a use reservation for designating one-way car sharing among a plurality of users who have made a use reservation with a pickup location and a drop-off location satisfying a predetermined condition.