MANILA, Philippines – Ride-hailing app, inDrive, wants to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve mobility in the Philippines while keeping passengers and drivers in control of their choices.
The company is exploring how AI can address practical challenges such as traffic, passenger safety and driver earning, in line with its push to make travel decisions more convenient and informed.
“We can transform inDrive from being a mobility platform to being an intelligent movement system where customers are able to make the best choices, aided by technology,” said Mantri during a media roundtable in Makati on October 16.
Mantri said that the challenge is to use AI to improve user experience without removing the human decisions that defined the platform.
He added that inDrive must also adapt its technology to the needs of individual markets like the Philippines.
AI should support decisions, not replace them
inDrive uses AI for several functions, including pricing, vehicle verification and customer support.
Rather than automating decisions, the company uses technology to help both passengers and drivers make informed decisions.
Mantri mentioned that the company’s approach to technology keeps their “super mission” of “challenging injustices” by fair pricing and peer-to-peer model.
For pricing, the platform analyzes historical trends, current demand and available driver supply to help balance the marketplace.
Mantri said AI also accelerates vehicle-image processing, with the technology handling almost 67% of vehicle images processed in driver operations.
This includes making processes for switching from one vehicle to another faster rather than doing things manually.
Globally, he added, generative AI handles around 40% of customer support tickets, allowing human agents to focus on more complicated concerns.
“We’re using AI to help human beings make better decisions. We’re not taking the decision-making authority away from them,” he said.
Mantri described the approach as making advanced technology accessible while adapting it to local conditions.
“We take the best technology available, we democratize it, and we adapt it locally to the super unique, hyper-local needs of markets such as Philippines,” he said.
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Product development starts on the streets
For Mantri, understanding those needs of passengers and drivers, and their challenges they face when using the platform, requires more than studying app data.
He said members of inDrive’s product organization, including himself, must complete at least one field immersion every quarter to observe how passengers and drivers use the service.
“The only option is that my team, including me, we need to spend a considerable amount of our time being out there in the streets, in the dust, in the traffic, and actually observing and studying how our customers are using the product,” he said.
The company also gathers feedback directly from drivers.
Direct remarks, as Mantri claimed, helped the company determine what needs improvement and communicate its responses to the people using the platform.
At a recent driver wellness event in the Philippines, inDrive said around 50 drivers joined discussions with the product team.
Mantri described the process as “closing the loop”: collecting feedback, identifying problems the company can address, and updating drivers on solutions and upcoming features.
The data generated by rides could also help passengers make better-informed choices about routes, travel times and costs.
Autonomous vehicles remain a long-term ambition
inDrive is also exploring how electric and autonomous vehicle technology could work in developing markets, where road conditions, trip distances and affordability differ from those in cities already adopting autonomous mobility.
Mantri acknowledged that autonomous vehicles could replace some driving tasks but said the company does not believe the technology must eliminate drivers’ livelihoods. Instead, he said, inDrive wants to explore ways for drivers to become entrepreneurs as mobility evolves.
The company’s plans remain long-term. Mantri estimated that adapting autonomous mobility for developing markets could take around five to six years, rather than being an initiative for next year.
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