The founders: Tom Kirschbaum (left) and Maxim Nohroudi
Image: Julia Zimmerman
In German cities there are now many providers who offer trips in minibuses via app. The start-up Door 2 Door supplies the software – and complains that new types of mobility usually end after pilot projects.
Technology providers are sometimes subject to a special curse. If they produce the technology for innovative services, but their name is not on the end product, then they are usually only known in specialist circles. The Berlin start-up Door 2 Door feels the same way. The company produces the software that 22 ride pooling providers in Germany currently use to coordinate their trips – and yet almost nobody in this country knows about the company.
The technical term “ridepooling” refers to taxi-like minibuses that can be ordered from one place to another using an app and that collect other passengers along the way. Unlike regular buses, they do not drive on predefined routes, but along a route that an algorithm sends them. My Bus in Duisburg, Sylt Go on the North Sea island, the Hofer Landbus in Upper Franconia – all examples where Door-2-Door technology calculates the cheapest route for picking up and dropping off passengers. A similar service is also being set up in Munich with the Isar Tiger – the plan there is to provide the entire city area and the surrounding area with call traffic.