The Value of Incorporating Social Preferences in Dynamic Ridesharing

Saisubramanian, Sandhya and Basich, Connor and Zilberstein, Shlomo and Goldman, Claudia

Keywords: Ridesharing, User preferences, Multi-objective decision making

TL;DR: We propose a novel dynamic ridesharing framework to form trips that optimizes both operational value for the service provider and user value to the passengers by factoring the users' social preferences into the decision-making process.

Abstract: Dynamic ridesharing services (DRS) play a major role in improving the efficiency of urban transportation. User satisfaction in dynamic ridesharing is determined by multiple factors such as travel time, cost, and social compatibility with co-passengers. Existing DRS optimize profit by maximizing the operational value for service providers or minimize travel time for users but they neglect the social experience of riders, which significantly influences the total value of the service to users. We propose DROPS, a dynamic ridesharing framework that factors the riders' social preferences in the matching process so as to improve the quality of the trips formed. Scheduling trips for users is a multi-objective optimization that aims to maximize the operational value for the service provider, while simultaneously maximizing the value of the trip for the users. The user value is estimated based on compatibility between co-passengers and the ride time. We then present a real-time matching algorithm for trip formation. Finally, we evaluate our approach empirically using real-world taxi trips data, and a population model including social preferences based on user surveys. The results demonstrate improvement in riders' social compatibility, without significantly affecting the vehicle miles for the service provider and travel time for users.