Uber and Hack Reactor Remote Beta Host Their First Immersive Online Hackathon

Back in July we announced our partnership with Hack Reactor Remote Beta and in August we had the chance to co-host our first hackathon together. If you’re unfamiliar with Hack Reactor Remote Beta, the team’s mission has always been to create a best in class, real-time online program to help aspiring developers around the world learn how to code.

With Remote Beta’s diverse demographic, developers were challenged to use the Uber API to create an experience that would simplify day-to-day tasks for users in the community. The hackathon took place online over five days, and had participants from the United States, Canada, Switzerland, India, and many others around the world competing against one another. This was the first time that Uber has hosted an immersive hackathon online that allowed participating developers to code, partake in online workshops, join discussions with Uber Engineers, and brainstorm together thanks to video conferencing tools such as Zoom.

There were a lot of remarkable projects that were submitted during the hackathon, but the grand prize winner went to a team that created Uberify. The winning team recognized that one of the common challenges in planning how to get somewhere is having to switch from searching for your destination on the web to getting a ride. Many sites provide an address, but users can struggle typing that address directly into the Uber app. Realizing that this was a hassle, the team created a Chrome extension that highlighted addresses found on any website and makes it easy to book an Uber right from that webpage.

As you can see, the integration is very easy to use. Once a user downloads the Chrome extension and signs into their Uber account, the extension will become active. That’s it! When requesting your ride you can even select the vehicle type that you want and get a preview of how much it will cost to get there! Now when you’re looking up the address to your favorite restaurant or retail store, you can simply request an Uber to get there all in one process.

This is the first time that we’ve done a online hackathon and are excited about the results. Our team is always looking to take on the next challenge in upcoming hackathons and we would love to be part of yours. If you have an amazing product or idea for an online hackathon send it our way!

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