Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Nubly ("Nubly," "we," "our," "us"), with a mailing address at 1968 S. Coast Hwy #1789, Laguna Beach, CA 92651. By creating an account, downloading the app, or otherwise using the Nubly platform, you agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use Nubly.

Important: These Terms contain a binding arbitration agreement and a class action waiver that affect your legal rights. See Section 15.

1. What Nubly is — and what it isn't

Nubly is a software platform that connects independent drivers with riders along compatible commuting routes. Nubly does not employ drivers, own the vehicles, set fares, transport passengers, or provide transportation services. Drivers are independent commuters who decide whether to drive, when, and which trips to accept. Riders contribute toward the driver's actual operating costs.

This means Nubly is a marketplace and matching platform, not a transportation provider. The driver and rider are the parties to each trip; Nubly facilitates the match and the payment.

Nubly is designed and operated to qualify as a ridesharing arrangement exempt from regulation as a transportation network company or charter-party carrier under California Public Utilities Code § 5353(h). Drivers participating on Nubly do so only when the ride is incidental to the driver's own commute, in a vehicle with seating for 15 or fewer, and not for profit.

2. Eligibility

To use Nubly you must:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Provide accurate registration information.
• Have an authentic LinkedIn account — required to sign in.

Drivers additionally must:

• Hold a valid driver's license for the jurisdiction in which they drive.
• Have permission to drive the vehicle they register on Nubly.
• Maintain personal automobile insurance at least at the state-required minimum. We strongly recommend liability coverage of at least $100,000 per person / $300,000 per accident bodily injury and $50,000 property damage, with an umbrella policy if your assets warrant it. You are responsible for confirming with your insurer that your policy covers shared-expense carpooling; most personal auto policies include a "shared-expense car pool" carve-out from the for-hire exclusion, but coverage varies by insurer and state.
• Represent and warrant that:
  • Trips offered through Nubly are incidental to your own commute or work-related travel, not undertaken primarily for profit.
  • You are not currently suspended or barred from operating as a TNC, taxi, or limousine driver, and you do not have an active disqualifying conviction or driving-record event that would make providing rides unsafe.
  • You will not solicit rides outside the Nubly platform from members you meet through it.
  • You will not drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and you will maintain valid vehicle registration and a roadworthy vehicle.

3. Verification and background checks

Nubly verifies member identity only through LinkedIn, which independently verifies its members through third-party providers including CLEAR. LinkedIn verification confirms identity at a point in time. It does not predict future conduct.

Nubly does not independently run criminal background checks, driving-record checks, employment verification, or vehicle inspections. You acknowledge that interaction with another Nubly member carries the kinds of risks any in-person meeting carries, and you agree to use reasonable judgment, drive and ride safely, and report concerns to us at [email protected].

4. Your account

Keep your account credentials confidential. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account. If you suspect unauthorized use, sign out from all devices and email [email protected] immediately. Provide accurate information; misrepresenting your identity, vehicle, or qualifications may result in suspension or termination.

5. Acceptable use

You agree to use Nubly only for lawful, personal, non-commercial purposes consistent with the platform's intent. You will not:

• Use the app for any illegal activity or to facilitate harm to others.
• Harass, threaten, discriminate against, or solicit sex from another member. Zero tolerance; we will suspend and report to law enforcement when warranted.
• Impersonate another person, register a vehicle that is not yours, or provide false documentation.
• Carry or transport prohibited items, weapons, or substances illegal in the trip's jurisdiction.
• Scrape, reverse engineer, or attempt to derive source code from the app or backend; abuse rate limits; or interfere with the platform's operation.
• Use Nubly data or match information to build, train, or operate a competing product or dataset.

6. Trip conduct

Drivers: arrive at pickup as agreed, drive safely and lawfully, complete the trip on the matched route absent an agreed change with the rider. You may decline a trip before accepting; once accepted, please commit. Repeated late-cancels or no-shows may affect your standing on the platform.

Riders: be at the pickup point on time, identify the matched vehicle, board safely, treat the driver and the vehicle with respect, and do not eat, drink, smoke, or vape in the vehicle without the driver's consent. Do not request stops outside the matched route.

If a trip needs to be cancelled, use the in-app End/Abort button. Cancelling or no-showing without sufficient notice may incur a cancellation fee, disclosed in the app before it applies.

7. Contributions, payments, and reimbursements

Nubly uses a contribution model. Riders contribute toward the driver's actual operating costs — they do not pay a fare.

• Contributions are calculated at or below the IRS standard business mileage rate, currently $0.725 per mile for 2026, applied to actual trip miles. We update the rate when the IRS publishes a new annual rate.
• The mileage contribution is prorated across all riders on the trip, plus each rider's pro-rata share of any tolls incurred.
• Each receipt shows the breakdown: rate-per-mile, miles, rider share, and toll share.
• The contribution does not include profit margin for the driver, time charges, surge pricing, or tips.

Drivers reimbursed at or below the IRS standard business mileage rate are generally recovering actual operating costs (fuel, depreciation, maintenance, insurance) rather than earning taxable income, but tax treatment depends on the driver's individual circumstances. You are solely responsible for tax reporting and should consult a tax advisor. Where applicable, Stripe will issue tax documents (such as 1099-Ks) directly to drivers.

Payments are processed by Stripe. By using the app, you agree to Stripe's terms applicable to riders (paying) and drivers (receiving payouts via Stripe Connect Express). Card and bank details are handled exclusively by Stripe; Nubly never sees the full numbers.

Stripe processing fees apply and are added to the rider's contribution total. The driver receives the trip contribution.

If a payment fails or is disputed, Stripe's standard processes govern. Refunds are at Nubly's discretion — typically issued for trips not completed due to platform error, not for driver/rider disputes about route or experience (those are handled through ratings and feedback).

8. Cancellations

Either party may cancel before pickup using the in-app End/Abort button. A cancellation or no-show without sufficient notice may incur a cancellation fee, disclosed in the app before it applies. If a driver no-shows, the rider is not charged.

9. Ratings and feedback

After each completed trip, both parties may rate the other. Ratings build community trust over time. Maliciously false ratings may be removed; chronically low-rated accounts may be reviewed for suspension. We may use anonymized rating data to improve matching and safety; we do not share individual ratings with anyone outside Nubly except as described in Section 10.

10. Employer-sponsored access

If your employer partners with Nubly to offer commuter benefits, and you use Nubly through that employer-sponsored channel, as a condition of using employer-sponsored access you agree that Nubly will periodically share your carpooling history with your employer or its third-party benefits administrator. The shared data is limited to: trip dates, mileage, contribution amounts, and verification that the trip was a commute. Your employer or its administrator does not receive GPS traces, route polylines, the other party's identity, or your ratings. This sharing is required because employer subsidies and commuter benefits programs are administered against verified commute participation.

If you do not use Nubly through an employer-sponsored channel, this section does not apply to you, and your data is not shared with any employer.

11. Insurance, risk, and your acknowledgment

You acknowledge and agree that:

• Nubly does not provide automobile liability insurance, collision coverage, comprehensive coverage, uninsured-motorist coverage, or medical payments coverage for any trip.
• Nubly is not an insurer, guarantor, or surety of any member's coverage.
• The driver's personal auto policy is the primary source of liability and physical-damage coverage for any incident during a trip.
• Trips on Nubly are designed as shared-expense carpools that typically fall within the share-the-expense carve-out in personal auto policies, but coverage is determined by each driver's insurer and policy.
• You participate in trips at your own risk and use reasonable judgment in your interactions with other members.

12. Intellectual property and feedback

Nubly and its licensors own the Nubly platform, software, brand, and all related intellectual property. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the app and website for personal, non-commercial use as described in these Terms. You retain rights to content you submit (such as ratings and feedback); by submitting it, you grant Nubly a worldwide, royalty-free license to use, host, store, and display that content as needed to operate and improve the service.

If you send us suggestions or ideas, we may use them without obligation to you.

DMCA / copyright complaints

If you believe content on Nubly infringes your copyright, send a written notice meeting the requirements of 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) to our designated DMCA agent at [email protected] (subject line: "DMCA Notice"). Our registered DMCA agent on file with the U.S. Copyright Office is identified in the public DMCA agent directory.

13. Service availability and changes

Nubly is provided "as is" and "as available." We aim for reliability but do not promise the platform is always available, error-free, or that every trip request will result in a match. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature with reasonable notice. During the pilot, you may experience bugs, occasional downtime, or unfinished features.

14. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Nubly's total liability arising out of or related to your use of the platform is limited to the greater of (a) the contributions you have paid through Nubly in the 12 months prior to the claim, or (b) US$100.

Nubly is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost data, or personal injury arising out of a driver-rider interaction the platform facilitated. This limitation applies whether the claim is based on contract, tort, strict liability, or any other legal theory, and applies even if Nubly has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

These limits do not apply to liability for our gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud, or to any liability that cannot be limited by applicable law. Some jurisdictions do not allow some of these limitations; in that case the limit applies to the fullest extent permitted.

15. Binding arbitration and class action waiver

Read this section carefully — it affects your legal rights.

Agreement to arbitrate. You and Nubly agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of Nubly — whether based on contract, tort, statute, fraud, misrepresentation, or any other legal theory — will be resolved by final and binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. The arbitration will be seated in San Mateo County, California, or conducted by video conference at your option. Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Carve-outs. Notwithstanding the above:

• Either party may bring an individual action in small claims court if the dispute qualifies under that court's jurisdictional limits.
• Either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in court to protect its intellectual property rights or to prevent unauthorized access to the platform, pending the outcome of arbitration.

Class action waiver. You and Nubly agree to bring claims against each other only in our individual capacities, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, mass, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate the claims of multiple persons and may not preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.

30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement and class action waiver by emailing [email protected] with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out," including your name and the email associated with your account, within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.

Severability of arbitration provision. If the class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or remedy, that claim or remedy will be severed and brought in court while the remaining claims proceed in arbitration.

Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this arbitration provision.

16. Termination

You may delete your account at any time by emailing [email protected] or using the in-app deletion flow when available. We may suspend or terminate your account for violation of these Terms or applicable law, or for safety, fraud, legal compulsion, or risk to the platform. We will provide notice where reasonably practicable, except where doing so would not be appropriate given the nature of the issue.

Upon termination, you remain liable for any obligations accrued before termination (such as outstanding contributions). Sections 5 (acceptable use), 7 (payments — for accrued obligations), 11 (insurance), 12 (intellectual property), 14 (limitation of liability), 15 (arbitration and class waiver), 17 (general), and this Section 16 survive termination.

17. General

Force majeure. Nubly is not liable for delay or failure to perform caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, civil unrest, government action, labor disputes, infrastructure failures, cyberattacks, or epidemics.

Assignment. Nubly may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, or otherwise. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent.

Notices. We may notify you by email to the address on your account or by in-app message. You may give notice to us at Nubly, 1968 S. Coast Hwy #1789, Laguna Beach, CA 92651, or by email to [email protected].

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Nubly regarding your use of the platform and supersede any prior agreements on the same subject.

Apple and Google app stores. If you access Nubly through Apple's App Store or Google Play, the following also apply:

• Apple Inc. and Google LLC are not parties to these Terms and are not responsible for the Nubly app or its content.
• Apple and Google are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.
• You will use the app only on a device that you own or control and only as permitted by the App Store Terms of Service or Google Play Terms of Service.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify members by email and update the date at the top of this page. Continued use of the platform after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

19. Contact

Questions about these Terms — reach us at [email protected]. For privacy-specific questions, see the Privacy Policy.