Smart-Contract Powered Decentralized Carpooling with Route Intelligence

Abstract

Urban transportation is under strain from growing congestion, environmental impact and inefficiencies in centralised ride-sharing systems. This work presents a decentralized peer - to - peer carpooling platform that can use blockchain technology and smart contracts to securely control the entire ride life cycle, without intermediaries. The system uses Ethereum smart contracts for transparent and tamper proof handling of ride request, acceptance, completion and payments thus eliminating the risks associated with the centralized controllers. A layer geospatial computation powered by OpenRouteService computes precise distances and fares, and interactive maps increase user trust in price. The prototype, implemented using Streamlit, Web3.py and Solidity, includes role-based dashboards for drivers and passengers, wallet-based authentication to prevent identity spoofing and optimized contract design to reduce gas costs. Presenting evidence of values for outputs through functional testing on a local Ethereum network, there are correct state transitions, approve stable transaction costs, stable and accurate of mappings are within +/-0.1 km of Google Maps. This platform provides a scalable and privacy respecting method for shared mobility with future expansions towards decentralised storage, advanced reputation systems and zk -proof based location privacy.