IDEA BOX: GET GAS APP

For over five years in Metro Manila as a daily commuter, I have experienced series of carmageddon, a state of extreme traffic congestion that happens whenever I ride a bus, i’m inside a van, passenger of a noisy jeep, or if i’m in a stinky cab. Ohhh…it usually takes about 1.5hrs to 2hrs just to get to Quezon City from Malabon. And its doubled whenever rain pours! There is just so much time being wasted due to the traffic caused by public and private vehicles.

The fact is — traffic is even worse than before.

According to a Ford Survey last 2016, the Philippines currently ranks 12th among countries with the worst traffic in the world. No wonder, then, that 30% of Filipinos consider commuting to be the worst part of their day.

With the growing Autonomous Economy, Uber and Grab cars are also becoming key players of transportation, adding up to the already chaotic and congested areas in EDSA. With those bumper to bumper cars on the road especially during rush hours, it’s not just our precious time being wasted but motorists to face a miserable pricey challenge, running out of gas.

To be more specific about it, I’ve seen colleagues uploading their lighted empty tank warnings on Social Media whenever they are driving on EDSA. I have seen cars being towed to gasoline stations because they ran out of gas.

As of today, motorists are solving this problem by asking/calling a friend to bring him gas. Another way is for the driver to walk on the nearest gasoline stations leaving his car on the road. These notable solutions may still lead to a more potentially dangerous situation. And of course, more chaos and traffic congestion.

Since we cannot solve the traffic jam overnight, What if we create a solution to this “I’m running out of gas” dilemma? What if there’s an app that we can use to help motorists during those trying times?

I’d like to share with you my concept called GET GAS. An app that helps motorist in Metro Manila who are stuck in traffic and would want to avoid an empty tank by fuelling up their cars/automobile anytime, anywhere they are.

The basic features include:

1. Gas Express Registration to capture user data and location
2. Different Payment Options
3. Option to select the Gas Station and Gas Type
4. Updated price/litre, and selection of the amount of litre they need.
5. Tracker that shows the driver’s details, location, and estimated arrival time.

Other Feature/s could be:

1. Track the gas consumption and efficiency for your vehicle.
2. Calculate the vehicle’s gas efficiency and keep track of total gas costs.
3. Every time you fill up the gas in your vehicle, we can record the Current odometer reading & Gas Amount

Please take note that I’m still on the early stage of the design process. I shared this online to know what you think about it, to get your feedback and to validate if this can actually work.

For those who are wondering about how I started, I used this design thinking process framework to craft the Get Gas App:

Design Thinking Process: Adapted from Stanford d.school and designthinkingforeducators.com

IDEA BOX is my bucket for personal projects based from daily commute observations and online research.