Hi riders,
Over the past couple of weeks, some of you will have noticed issues with the Beeline app: slower syncing, trouble loading ride history, and occasional interruptions during rides. We want to be open with you about what’s been going on, what we’re doing to fix it, and how we’ll make sure Beeline is stronger in the future.
What happened
Quite simply, you’ve been riding a lot. Our community has grown faster than expected this summer and the sheer volume of rides being recorded pushed our systems to their limits.
More specifically, our database has been running at maximum capacity. That means requests like saving a ride or loading past data were queued up instead of running instantly. During busy times, this queue could last several minutes, which is why some of you saw delays or partial results.
Why we couldn’t just “add more servers”
We know some of you will be wondering why we didn’t just throw extra hardware at the problem. The database technology we use doesn’t scale that way. To properly fix this, we need to restructure the way our data is stored and accessed, so it can handle far more read and write requests at once.
The good news
- No ride data has been lost. Even if the app restarted, your rides were safely stored and eventually synced.
- We’ve already rolled out updates (Android 4.2.6301 and iOS 3.4.2739) that improve stability, and many of you are starting to see things working more smoothly again.
- Work is already underway on deeper changes to our systems that will ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Looking ahead
We’ve always balanced adding new features with investing in the stability of our systems. This time, we got that balance wrong. That’s on us.
The upside is that the changes we’re making now will not only solve the current issues but also leave Beeline in a stronger position for the future - ready to keep up with this amazing and growing community of riders.
Thanks for bearing with us while we put things right. We’re truly grateful to have such a passionate community riding with us, and we can’t wait to get everyone back to 100% smooth sailing (or riding).
Cheers,
Team Beeline
