My Carpool Story

The first few years after graduation, I worked at a large budget‑friendly company and lived about 17 km from the office.

My daily commute was: bus → Metro Line X → transfer to Metro Line Y → company shuttle, taking about 1 hour 20 minutes. But for someone who often worked overtime past 9 p.m., getting home was a whole different story— the last company shuttle left at 9, so by the time I finished there was usually no shuttle left. At that time the company didn’t offer a taxi subsidy for late‑night work, and a ride home cost ¥40–¥50, which was prohibitively expensive.

Didi Hitch‑Ride saved me!

Back then a Didi hitch‑ride cost roughly ¥18.

Why do I remember ¥18 so clearly? Because our dinner allowance was also ¥18. I thought, “Whether the company subsidizes dinner or not, I still need to eat, so let’s treat that ¥18 as a company subsidy for my ride home.” 😁

And that’s how I started using hitch‑rides.

Note: I checked, and Didi Hitch‑Ride launched on June 1, 2015—already ten years old. Oops, I just revealed my age…

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Back to the point: today I want to share the stories of a few hitch‑ride drivers I’ve met.

Driver 1

I met this driver shortly after I started using Didi Hitch‑Ride. Since both my home and office were close to his, we naturally became “after‑work buddies.” I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve ridden with him. On the way we’d chat about work, annoying coworkers, and everything else; before we knew it, we’d arrived home. That experience gave me a strong, positive impression of hitch‑rides.

Driver 2

I’ll never forget this driver because we met during a torrential rainstorm in Beijing. Anyone who’s ever worked in the capital might recall the year when the floodwaters swamped Xierqi, and a famous photo showed a programmer perched on a trash can, laptop open, still working. On that rainy day, despite my phone being dead and the app unresponsive, I miraculously got a hitch‑ride that took me to work. While we were in the car, the rain kept pouring. The driver told me he hadn’t planned to take any more passengers that day because rainy roads are dangerous, but then thought, “If I don’t take passengers, many people will be stranded.” So he decided to go ahead. I thought to myself, “What a kind, wonderful person.”

Driver 3

I met this driver last year. He’s given me rides a few times, and we don’t talk much on the road. Once, I got into his car while on the phone with my mother, crying, thinking about quitting, breaking up, even destroying the world. He sat there silently, handed me a tissue, and after I got off he messaged me: “Don’t rush any decisions. Maybe go to Starbucks for a bit and clear your head. Everything will be okay.” For some reason, that simple message felt like a huge act of kindness.

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I’m not even sure why I wanted to write this; it’s been half a year since my last update. But after finishing these three stories, I realized I’m someone who deeply needs other people’s kindness and who also wants to give it. Each of the drivers above warmed my heart, and I hope their warmth is returned (even though that’s not always the case).

That’s probably why I’m so drawn to building user‑facing products—I genuinely want to help people, to make a small difference in the world.

The end.

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2024‑12‑06 Draft in Beijing
2025‑07‑18 Final in Jingdezhen

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Originally written by Estela Young and published in Chinese on 一只产品汪的自白. Translated and edited for DriftSeas with permission.