Imagine if your city's bus timetable, ride-sharing options, and real-time traffic info were all merged into one app that tells you the fastest, cheapest, or greenest way to get across town. SocialCar built exactly that — a planning engine that combines public transport schedules with carpooling offers, so commuters can compare all their options in one place. It uses your phone's location and social media to match riders in real time, turning empty car seats into part of the city's transport network. The system was tested in 10 European cities to prove it actually works in daily life.
European cities face growing congestion, but building new transport infrastructure is slow and expensive. Meanwhile, millions of car seats go empty on daily commutes, and existing carpooling apps work well for long trips but fail in urban settings where timing and route flexibility matter most. Cities and transport operators lack a way to plug shared rides into their existing public transport networks as a genuine mobility option.
SocialCar built an integrated mobility platform with planning algorithms that combine public transport data, carpooling offers, and crowdsourced information into a single travel planning service. The system includes a city-based open mobility data repository, GNSS-based location services, social media notifications, and green driving support. It produced 38 deliverables including three rounds of test evaluations across 10 European urban sites with defined KPIs.
If you are a MaaS provider struggling to integrate carpooling into your multimodal travel planner — this project developed planning algorithms and a data architecture that merges public transport feeds with carpooling and crowdsourced data, tested across 10 European urban sites. It gives your users a single interface to compare bus, train, and shared rides in real time.
If you are a city transport authority looking to reduce congestion without building new infrastructure — this project created an open mobility data repository that plugs carpooling capacity into existing public transport networks. It was validated in 10 cities across 13 countries, with defined KPIs measuring performance improvements.
If you are managing employee commuting for a large site and want to cut parking demand and carbon emissions — this project built a social carpooling network with real-time matching and route planning. The system integrates with GNSS positioning and supports green driving, tested at scale across 10 urban sites.
The project data does not include licensing fees or deployment costs. FIT CONSULTING SRL, an Italian SME, coordinated the project and would be the primary contact for commercial terms. Given the RIA funding scheme and 30-partner consortium, negotiation would likely involve multiple IP holders.
The system was designed as an open platform with a city-based mobility data repository. It was tested across 10 European urban sites in 13 countries, with three rounds of test evaluations and defined KPIs. This cross-country validation suggests the architecture is designed for replication.
IP is shared among the 30 consortium partners under Horizon 2020 rules. The coordinator FIT CONSULTING SRL and the 16 industry partners would be the main parties for licensing discussions. Specific IP arrangements would need to be clarified with the consortium.
Yes — a core objective was integrating big data from public transport, carpooling, and crowdsourced sources into a unified planning engine. The project produced an open integrated mobility repository of public transport and traffic data, designed for city-level deployment.
The project targets EU2020 energy efficiency goals and validates European GNSS-based systems. Based on available project data, specific regulatory certifications are not detailed, but the platform was built to align with EU transport and data standards across 13 countries.
The project ran from 2015 to 2018, completing three rounds of city-level testing. Based on the test evaluation deliverables, a city deployment could build on proven architecture, but timeline would depend on local data integration and transport operator agreements.
The SocialCar consortium is unusually large at 30 partners across 13 countries, with a strong commercial tilt — 16 industry partners and 11 SMEs make up 53% of the team. This is a good sign for anyone looking to adopt the technology: the research was shaped by companies that need it to work in the real world, not just in a lab. The coordinator, FIT CONSULTING SRL, is an Italian SME specializing in consulting, supported by 3 universities and 2 research organizations providing the scientific backbone. The geographic spread across Western, Central, and Southeastern Europe (including Croatia, Hungary, North Macedonia, and Slovenia) means the platform was designed to work across very different urban transport contexts.
FIT CONSULTING SRL (Italy) — an SME specializing in transport consulting. Use Google AI Search to find the coordinator's direct contact.
Want an introduction to the SocialCar team? SciTransfer can connect you with the right people in the consortium for your specific use case.
