Co-rider: A Privacy-Aware Real-Time Multi-User Location Tracking System with Adaptive Update Optimization

Abstract

Group mobility scenarios, such as bike trains, touring rides, and convoyed travel, often encounter synchronization interruptions due to traffic, divergent pathways, asymmetric riding times and speeds, and distributed situational awareness. Existing location navigation and live location sharing tools are designed for focused individual use, and do not provide scalable, real-time shared coordination services for dynamic groups on the move. This paper presents Co-Rider, a web-first, real-time convoy coordination service designed to enable multiple riders to exist within a single shared navigation environment.

The system introduces Adaptive Update Optimization (AUO), a flexible synchronization procedure that adapts GPS point transmission (or “poll rate") to current convoy conditions based on convoy spread, rider pace, and pairing divergence. In contrast with services sharing locations at relatively fixed poll rates, this design expedites network communication while staying true to convoy steering context, to ultimately optimize on battery duration.

The platform incorporates real-time socket-based convoy coordinate sharing, shared node navigation, convoy-optimized rider tracking, message broadcasting, and session-specific rider operations into a comprehensive mobility coordination architecture. The lightweight, web first implementation uses Next.js, Node.js, Socket.IO, Leaflet.js, and OpenStreetMap. This work examines how flexible synchronization and convoy-centric navigation paradigms can enhance group mobility coordination in aWeb application, yet be fast and scalable enough for free-tier implementation. It lays the foundation for future mobility coordination research.