Game, Set, Match

Charades gets flirty on your phone with new Dallas-based dating app

It’s more common than ever to find a companion online. But a new free Dallas-based dating app hopes to make the process even more personal for its users by turning the flirting process into a mobile charades game.

Charade Date by DNA Mobile launched on iOS in late September as the brainchild of founder Richard Burghardt. Users are shown matches based on age, proximity and sexual orientation and then given the option of requesting a game.

If the other person accepts, the two users enter into a match. They take turns creating eight-second videos with their front-facing camera, in which they act out a charade. The other person guesses, and from there it’s church bells and babies.

“You can’t hide in video interaction,” founder Richard Burghardt says. “You can’t show a picture of yourself from 10 years ago when you were 50 pounds lighter.”

There are no scores to be tallied or games to be won. Rather, it’s about getting to know someone — you can message the other player during the game — through something less stilting than an online profile.

“It’s my opinion that the online dating world and the form of interactions are really unnatural for a lot of people and awkward for some,” Burghardt says.

“People typically get to know someone in some other context than dating. They’re a friend of a friend, and then they turn that into dating, or they worked together and then they started dating. Online dating can be like walking up to someone at a bar; it’s difficult and intimidating.”

Burghardt says Charade Date grew from his interest in apps like Words With Friends and Draw Something that brought a friendly competition without making it about winning.

“I always wanted to know the person on the other end,” he says. “It wasn’t about winning the game; it was about how funny these pictures are. The interaction was where the entertainment was.

“The idea of putting people together on video in the form of a game answers all the questions you might need to get to know somebody.”

Considering there is a meme called “Rule 34” that states, “There is porn of it. No exceptions,” it would make sense that a video-based dating app could result in some less-than-wholesome videos being sent to unwanted eyes. DNA Mobile weighed the two options — heavy policing of videos or a more hands-off approach.

“We call that the ‘Chatroulette Effect’ where you’d see something interesting or funny and then the next video is of someone naked,” Burghardt says. “The heavy policing model had a lot of issues from our end — how do you know what’s inappropriate, the time commitment to monitoring videos, the legal aspect.

“We’ve made it so that you can refuse games and also block people from being able to find you. You hit a button, confirm it and they’re gone for good. It’s the most elegant solution without being a police force.”

But Burghardt says that the video aspect provides security against liars that other dating apps and sites can’t.

“You can’t hide in video interaction,” he says. “You can’t show a picture of yourself from 10 years ago when you were 50 pounds lighter, and you can’t pretend to be a 20-year-old girl when you’re a 40-year-old guy.

“The most important thing is that you’re playing a game, and you have something to talk about. You’re not trying to force a conversation based off a profile.”

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THE FUTURE IS NOW

Self-driving Waymo robotaxis can now be hailed in Dallas

Waymo/ FacebookWa

Waymo is now offering driverless rides to San Antonians.

Waymo will begin dispatching its robotaxis in Dallas and four more cities in Texas and Florida, expanding the territory covered by its fleet of self-driving cars to 10 major U.S. metropolitan markets.

The move into Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, Florida, announced Tuesday, February 24, widens Waymo's early lead in autonomous driving while rival services from Tesla and the Amazon-owned Zoox are still testing their vehicles in only a few U.S. cities.

In contrast, Waymo's robotaxis already provide more than 400,000 weekly trips in the six metropolitan areas where they have been transporting passengers: Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and Austin.

Waymo operates its ride-hailing service through its own app in all the U.S. cities except Atlanta and Austin, where its robotaxis can only be summoned through Uber's ride-hailing service.

In Dallas, they'll partner with Avis, according to a release — offering their ride-hailing service through the Waymo app, with a fleet managed through a new multi-year partnership with Avis Budget Group, whose expertise will help Waymo scale the Waymo Driver even faster.

Avis will provide end-to-end fleet management services, including infrastructure, vehicle readiness, maintenance, and general depot operations.

Dallas' downtown metro area is considered well suited for Waymo's 24/7 autonomous ride-hailing service. They also aim to improve road safety and partner with the city of Dallas on its "Vision Zero" plan to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and reduce severe injury crashes by 50 percent by 2030.

The expansion into four more markets marks a significant step toward Waymo's goal to surpass 1 million weekly paid trips by the end of 2026. Without identifying where its robotaxis will be available next, Waymo is targeting a list of eight other cities that include Las Vegas, Washington, Detroit, and Boston while signaling its first overseas availability is likely to be London.

To help pay for more robotaxis, Waymo recently raised $16 billion as part of the financial infusion that puts the value of the company at $126 billion. The valuation fueled speculation that Waymo may eventually be spun off from its corporate parent Alphabet, where it began as a secret project within Google in 2009.

Although Waymo is opening up in four more cities, its robotaxis initially will only be made available to a limited number of people with its ride-hailing app in Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and Orlando before the service will be available to all corners in those markets.

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Teresa Gubbins contributed to this story.

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