Increasing mobility costs and increasing ecological awareness raise the demand for economical and flexible alternatives to established mobility services.

OpenRide is a solution for the ad-hoc brokerage of car rides being developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems. With OpenRide, car drivers and car passengers can spontaneously share and look for rides through their mobile phones.

The openness of OpenRide allows the easy connection of existing agencies and communities for arranged lifts. Therefore OpenRide opens up the underutilized capacities in the individual transports sector and helps to develop the market for mobile ad-hoc car sharing.

OpenRide is funded by the EXIST support programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) of the Federal Republic of Germany aimed at improving the entrepreneurial environment at universities and research institutes and at increasing the number of technology and knowledge based company formations. The EXIST programme is part of the German government’s “Hightech Strategy for Germany” and is co-financed by funding of the European Social Fund (ESF).