Winners of the hackaway on the future of travel

A new app with personalised traffic information – that was the winner of an intensive hackaway on the future of travel. The winning app provides information only about traffic disruptions that are relevant, depending on how we travel in day-to-day traffic. Over a weekend at the end of January, the event brought together, at Käringön in Bohuslän, some 40 developers from companies that included e.g. Spotify and Mojang. In addition to the winning proposal, lots of other ideas were generated for web solutions and apps, all of which are based on real data. 

The winners – Max Schedin, Poyan Nabati and Tobias Ahlin from Team Ridepulse – received the prize on 6 February during the Tech Meetup Stockholm event. The prize ceremony was presided over by former Minister of Infrastructure Catharina Elmsäter Swärd.

The travel hack was arranged by the development company Nobina Technology together with Confetti, Drive Sweden, Ericsson and TrafikLab.

‟The participants were incredibly sharp and it was great to see such a diversity of solutions. There were also no fake apps or services, but rather everything was based on real data from sources that we already use,” says Anna Haeger, business developer at Nobina Technology.

Winning travel app competes in Montreal

The winners from Team Ridepulse call their project ‟Sam”, as in the Swedish term ‘samåkning’, which means travelling together. In the iOS-app that the group developed, it’s possible to choose approximately when and how one wishes to travel, and then obtain information about any delays that affect one’s own travel route.

‟Our idea helps everyone who uses local public transport to get to and from work, to avoid traffic disruptions – and to reduce small frustrations in day-to-day life,” says Tobias Ahlin, one of the winners, who in day-to-day life works at Mojang.

‟There’s a lot of traffic information available, almost too much. But by focusing on where you live and work and on your daily habits, we can filter out the irrelevant information and send you notices about disruptions that affect precisely you and your day-to-day life,” continues Tobias.

The winning team can now look forward to a trip to Montreal on 15 – 17 May in order to represent Sweden at the global hack during the Global Public Transport Summit which is organised by UITP.

It has not yet been decided whether specifically their app will be launched publicly.

‟We hope so! If not through us, then maybe through someone else,” says Tobias who leaves the possibility open.

Other exciting projects from the competition

• A physical bedside table which, with the help of four boxes, shows whether you should take the train, bus, cycle – or if you can continue sleeping. It’s based on weather information and public transport departures.
  
•  A simple and pure iOS app which shows the next departure between the places one travels most often, e.g. work, the home and the gym. The app will be released shortly on AppStore and also functions on Apple Watch.
  
• A VR app for train journeys where one sets arrival and one’s own location. Unexpected things happen during the journey…
  
• An app to see where one’s friends are on a map and which suggests a suitable meeting place based on triangulation from one’s own position.
  
• Tryggve – a chatbot for Facebook that one can chat with when travelling on Stockholm’s public transport if one feels insecure, frightened or tired. Tryggve then tells you what one should do. It will, according to plan, be launched shortly on Facebook.  
• An app to link up with other passengers throughout the world – and share your travel experiences with others. Both with video and audio.

Hashtags: #TravelHackaway and #y4pthackathon

For further information, please contact:

Annika Molander, Communications Director Nobina AB, +46 733 55 06 16
Anna Haeger, Business Developer at Nobina Technology, +46 737 00 95 57

About Nobina Technology
Nobina Technology is an innovation company which, together with selected partners, develops services in order to simplify day-to-day travel. Nobina Technology links public transport and other means of transport together with new smart products such as equipment, systems and self-driving vehicles, so that people can move from door to door more quickly and easier, in an environmentally friendly manner. Nobina Technology was founded in 2016 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary within the listed Nobina Group (NOBINA). Read more on www.nobina.com/en/nobina-technology

About Nobina
Nobina is the largest and most experienced public bus transport service provider in the Nordic region. The Company’s expertise in prospecting, tendering and active management of public bus transport contracts in combination with long-term delivery quality makes Nobina an industry leader in terms of profitability, development and initiatives that promote a healthier industry. Every day, Nobina ensures that more than one million people arrive at work, school or other activities by delivering contracted public bus transport services in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. In addition, Nobina offers express bus services under the Swebus brand in the Swedish market. The Company has sales in excess of SEK 8 billion (2015/16), approximately 10,000 employees, and is headquartered in Solna, Stockholm. For more information, see Nobina’s website: www.nobina.com