A clever idea to cut peak-hour traffic has won a young entrepreneur a ticket to Antarctica.
Dave Jackson, 30, is joining about 100 entrepreneurs heading to the frozen continent in late January with the Unstoppables, a new think tank set up to drive innovation in Australia.
The 11-day trip is designed to pair successful entrepreneurs with up-and-coming whiz kids brimming with ideas.
Mr Jackson's idea is a car pooling app that connects people battling traffic on their way to work, allowing them to share car rides instead of driving separate vehicles.
While his CarCrowd app is still being developed, the idea is for users to enter their personal and journey details so they can be matched with commuters heading the same way.
The Sydney-based entrepreneur believes his idea could dramatically cut the number of cars on the road, particularly during the peak-hour rush, and reduce carbon emissions.
He hopes governments will ultimately back the idea and allow users to pay for ride shares with pre-paid public transport cards such as Sydney's Opal and Melbourne's myki.
The estimated cost for using the service would be similar to a bus, train or tram ride, between $2 and $10.
"Up to 80 per cent of cars in peak hour only have one person - the driver," Mr Jackson said.
"Our main agenda is to take cars off the road and reduce congestion and pollution."
Mr Jackson, who grew up in the central west NSW town of Cowra and whose day job is tutoring music students, says his idea for CarCrowd wasn't the result of a "eureka moment".
"I have stacks of ideas. It's one of many, to be honest," he said.
"It's borne out of my constant desire to use creative thinking to solve problems."
His creative thinking impressed the Unstoppables so much that the think tank selected him from 500 candidates for an all-expenses paid ticket to Antarctica.
Unstoppables founder Julio De Laffitte said young people like Mr Jackson represented the future of entrepreneurs in Australia.
"We love Dave's idea and we have a ship full of the right people who will turn this into reality," he said.
Mr Jackson and his fellow entrepreneurs are due to arrive in Antarctica on Australia Day for a trip designed to transform their businesses.
*The author will be a guest on the Unstoppables trip.
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