Subscription Ride-hailing Service Go360 Offers Sacramento Grid Service For $200 Per Month

Source: Sacramento Business Journal, Mark Anderson
Photo: A Go360 ride-hailing service vehicle (COURTESY OF GO360)

A new subscription ride-hailing service featuring professional drivers will debut in Sacramento in the new year, targeting people who just need short rides within the grid.

The startup Go360 is a member of the University of California Berkeley venture accelerator Berkeley SkyDeck, and it has support from German auto maker Daimler AG, co-founder Anuj Gupta said.

Go360 moved to Sacramento to be part of its nascent auto technology startup culture, which is supported by the city of Sacramento and the Greater Sacramento Economic Council.

SkyDeck has invested $100,000 in Go360.

The Go360 service hopes to target the residents of large new Sacramento apartment complexes that have been developed in the central city and midtown neighborhoods in the past decade, Gupta said.

“The parking situation is very difficult, and the residents have to pay $200 or $250 per month for parking,” he said. Many downtown office garages also charge more than $150 monthly to park during the day.

Go360 is offering the convenience of a car without costs such as parking, gas, insurance and financing, Gupta said. Its subscription price is set at $200 per month.

While ferrying passengers, Go360 will also be compiling street landscape data with multiple cameras and lidar sensors, Gupta said. That information will be used to create mapping for future autonomous vehicle uses.

The Go360 service launches Jan. 3 with a live demo for 50 subscribers. The service will start with two luxury SUVs, which will use proprietary technology to develop the best routes. Go360 has developed an algorithm to most efficiently route traffic with multiple riders and multiple cars, Gupta said. At any given time, the cars should have two to three passengers, he said.

“Our two main pillars are luxury service and efficient routing,” Gupta said.

Go360 will only serve Sacramento’s grid from downtown to East Sacramento.

“We are avoiding the congestion of freeways and the traffic of rush hour,” he said. The goal is to reduce driving by putting various trips together and to increase capacity utilization by having the cars in constant motion.

Go360’s two founders and friends and family launched the company, hoping to collect revenue from subscribers and from delivering data to Daimler, Gupta said. The company has five interns from UC Berkeley and four developers in Hyderabad, India.

Go360 will be based in an office in the Ice Blocks development on R Street.

If the test works, the company plans to expand to 100 or 200 subscribers by the end of February, and then in the third quarter to add concierge services, such as laundry or grocery delivery during slow periods in the day. The busy times for the service are expected to be morning and evening commute hours.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2019/12/23/subscription-ride-hailing-service-go360