‘Benefit us all’: all-EV rideshare company aims to respect employees and the planet
Raven Hernandez conceived her idea for a green transportation startup as a student at Pepperdine Law School in Malibu, California.
A Nashville native, Hernandez, 26, said the move to Los Angeles opened her eyes to the world of organic food and sustainable clothing. Yet this emerging health and environmental consciousness didn’t sit well with the school’s proximity to Los Angeles international airport, and the dense, gray air she breathed in every day – pollution that’s largely due to all the cars driving around the city.
“Looking at LAX every day from Pepperdine, I thought, ‘What does all this food and clothes even matter if the environment around me is polluted?’” Hernandez said. “That’s where the desire of electrifying rides came about – to make a change that would benefit us all.”
In October 2020, she founded Earth Rides, a ride-hailing app whose entire fleet is electric vehicles from Tesla, Mustang Mach-E, Polestar 2 and several other manufacturers. Since its launch, the company has serviced more than 300,000 passengers in Tennessee and Texas, which Hernandez says has offset 230m grams of carbon in the past year alone. It now has a dozen full-time staff working on the tech and business side and nearly 100 drivers. This year, the company is expanding to California and Arizona.
In addition to combating climate change, Hernandez, whose family immigrated from Panama, also wants to revolutionize what she calls a patriarchal industry with a troubled labor history. Drivers for Earth, unlike for Uber and Lyft, are employees rather than independent contractors. Women or people of color make up 40% of the driver force and 50% of the leadership team. These measures, Hernandez said, are aimed at making EVs more accessible to both
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