System and method for operating a service to arrange transport amongst parties through use of mobile devices

Abstract

A system and method are described for enabling transportation to be arranged for individuals carrying handsets or mobile devices. In some embodiments, a customer can transmit a request for transport from a given customer geographic location. A service may handle the request by selecting a driver for the customer.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computing system, comprising:
 one or more network interfaces;   one or more processors; and   one or more memory resources storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to:
 communicate, over a network using the one or more network interfaces, with a plurality of mobile computing devices of customers to receive location information from the plurality of mobile computing devices of customers; 
 based on location information received from a set of mobile computing devices of the plurality of mobile computing devices of customers over a duration of time, determine a set of popular pickup locations in a given geographic region; 
 determine a current location of a first mobile computing device of a first customer based on location data determined by a customer application executing on the first mobile computing device, the customer application determining the location data by using a location-aware resource of the first mobile computing device; 
 cause the customer application executing on the first mobile computing device to generate a presentation that includes a map that indicates one or more popular pickup locations of the set of popular pickup locations; 
 receive, over the network using the one or more network interfaces, a transport request from the first mobile computing device, the transport request including a pickup location of the first customer and a destination location of the first customer, wherein the pickup location of the first customer corresponds to a popular pickup location of the one or more popular pickup locations; 
 after receiving the transport request, select an available driver from a plurality of available drivers to transport the first customer based, at least in part, on a current location of a mobile computing device of the selected driver, the current location determined based on location data determined by a driver application executing on the mobile computing device of the selected driver; 
 monitor the selected driver traveling to the pickup location of the first customer by receiving location information of the mobile computing device of the available driver, as determined by the driver application executing on the mobile computing device of the selected driver; and 
 based on monitoring the selected driver, transmitting, over the network using the one or more network interfaces, data to the customer application executing on the first mobile computing device to update an estimated time of arrival of the selected driver to the pickup location of the first customer.