Coordinating school carpools without the group-chat scramble

How does carpool coordination work?

1. It detects the recurring activity.When an activity like “soccer practice, Tuesdays” is shared across your Circle, Hobson recognizes the pattern and sets up a weekly carpool for it. You can also create one yourself from the Circle screen.
2. It asks 48 hours ahead.Every parent in the Circle gets a prompt: tap “I’ll Drive” with your seat count, “Need Ride,” or “Not Going.” Seats fill as people answer, so you can see when the run is covered.
3. It keeps it fair.Carpool Karma tracks who drives most, so the load is visible and the same person doesn’t quietly carry it every week.
4. It closes the loop.The answer is saved to the Circle where every member can see it, and the next week’s question goes out automatically.

What does a parent actually see?

Two days before practice, a card appears on your Today screen and as a push notification: “Who’s driving to soccer on Tuesday?” You answer with one tap. If you’re driving, you say how many seats you have. If your kid needs a ride, you say so, and the card shows who has claimed the wheel and how many seats are left. When the run is covered, the card settles down. When it isn’t, it stays put so nobody is surprised at 4:47pm.

How do you set up a carpool in Hobson?

1. Create a Circle, or open the one you already share with the other parents.
2. Send them the Circle’s invite link. Each parent opens it on their phone and lands in the Circle.
3. From the Circle screen, create a Carpool and set it to repeat weekly for the activity, or let Hobson pick up a recurring activity that is already shared there. Hobson reads calendar events through Apple’s EventKit on iPhone and the Google Calendar API, and never changes the events it reads.
4. Two days before each run, every parent gets the question. Answer it once, and the week’s plan is settled.

What if the plan changes?

Tap the card again and change your answer; the seat count updates for everyone in the Circle. If practice is cancelled, the person who runs the carpool can close that week’s question, and the next one goes out on schedule. Because every answer is in the Circle rather than a chat thread, the parent who joins late sees the same plan everyone else does.

Who should be in the carpool Circle?

Just the parents who share the drive. A Circle can be as small as two households, and a parent can be in several Circles at once: one for the Tuesday soccer run, another for the whole family, another with a co-parent. Each Circle only sees what is shared into it. The soccer parents see the soccer carpool; they do not see your work calendar or your other children’s appointments.

Inviting someone takes an invite link. They open it on their phone, land in the Circle, and the next carpool question includes them.

What about a one-off ride?

A carpool is for the activity that happens every week. For a single trip where you want peace of mind, Household plans add “Schedule a ride”: one person drives, and when they tap “arrived safely” everyone in the Circle gets a short notification. It was built for getting an older parent to an appointment or a child to a friend’s house, where the question isn’t who is driving but whether they got there.

What does it cost?

Carpool coordination is included in Solo, which is free. Circles, nudges, and calendar sync are free too. The paid Household plan adds unlimited AI actions, single-trip rides with arrival notifications, and shared medication reminders for up to 6 people.

What about privacy?

A Circle can be just the parents who share the carpool. You don’t have to share your full calendar to coordinate one activity, and you choose what goes in. Hobson reads your calendar to spot the recurring activity but never changes or deletes your events, and it does not sell your data or show ads.

What are the limits?

• Hobson coordinates who drives. It does not track cars on a map or collect location in the background.
• Every parent in the carpool needs the Hobson app and a free account to answer the question.
• Hobson is on the iOS App Store and Google Play, so a mixed iPhone and Android carpool works.
• There is no payment splitting or fuel-cost tracking. Carpool Karma tracks drives, not money.