Spice Data (YC S19) Is Hiring a Product Associate (New Grad) (ycombinator.com)

When I was in India last year, I used UPI. Paying or splitting bills was as simple as scanning a QR code. Every shop had it, from street food stalls to restaurants. It just worked.

In Singapore, I saw how much could be done with the digital ID system. Filing forms, healthcare, banking—it felt like everything was one login away.

In the US, even a short hospital visit can cost thousands of dollars. It made me wonder why some basic things that clearly work elsewhere are missing here.

What have you seen abroad that felt obvious, but doesn’t exist where you live?

Comments (14)

Nextgrid · 2h ago

The Swiss public transport ticketing system. Their app uses location services to automatically determine your fare, so you don’t need to buy tickets in advance: https://www.sbb.ch/en/travel-information/apps/sbb-mobile/eas....

As a bonus there are no ticket barriers so no queues and no overheads of maintaining those machines.

octo888 · 29m ago

What an Orwellian nightmare. These systems require real-time GPS data.

Just as buying a ticket with cash is becoming increasingly hard in parts of Europe, I can see a near future where having a phone sending constant GPS updates becomes a requirement (a requirement in an strict sense, or the sense that the alternative is unreasonably cumbersome or more expensive)

aosaigh · 50m ago

I believe Copenhagen has this too now. I visited in the same week they were launching the system (last year?) and it worked perfectly. All you had to do was press a button on your phone as you enter and leave the station and it automatically calculates what you owe. I loved it. It also worked throughout all of the different train systems.

marcyb5st · 2h ago

More than that (which is an amazing feature, don't get me wrong) is the fact that there is a single app for every public transportation system in the country.

Compare that to Italy/France/Spain (those that I know) where, depending where you are traveling to, you have to download, sign in, and give your credit card details to N different apps in different states of disrepair/being barely maintained.

Virtual credit cards (I use Revolut) that I then delete mitigate that, but still, what a mess.

netfortius · 42m ago

Certain parts of France and Germany, that I know, use something similar for regional trains and buses: FAIRTIQ

liamwire · 1h ago

Queensland, Australia introduced state-wide $0.50 public transit fares a year ago, and it’s been a raging success. Conveniently, this also eliminates the entire problem class of needing to calculate fares. Mind you, for those unfamiliar, QLD is a state 2.5x larger than Texas, 5x larger than all of Japan, 7x larger than Great Britain, and is bigger than all but 16 countries.

kingkongjaffa · 1h ago

I guess size is a factor but also population density, does QLD have way less people per sq.m and does that make it easier to implement stuff like this?

leandot · 2h ago

This. It also caps your fares in a day to the cost of a daily ticket, so you don't get overcharged.

ano-ther · 1h ago

London and Stockholm: swipe your credit card for public transport. Great for visitors (I guess for residents a subscription will be cheaper)

ukoki · 29m ago

In London contactless payment via credit/debit/Apple/Android has automatic daily and weekly caps

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/capping

Depending on the frequency of travel, it can be cheaper to get season tickets though

bravesoul2 · 13m ago

Sydney too, for quite a while (I am sure at least 5 yrs maybe 10)

chrismatheson · 1h ago

I don't think so (not a Londoner)

It was my impression that the whole thing was just about simplification in order to provide a better service.

preya2k · 2h ago

Swiss/Danish/Finnish Mobile Payment alternatives like TWINT and MobilePay.

Also: physical lockers with PIN/Code instead of keys (in basically every country aside from Germany). It's just completely bonkers to me, that German train station lockers still use physical Keys EVERYWHERE.

Nextgrid · 2h ago

There’s probably an economy around those keys - people who lose them have to pay an (overinflated) deposit, some company is overcharging the locker owner for key replacements, etc. At every layer someone skims a bit of money, so nobody in power of changing the system is actually incentivized to do so.