Founded by presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond alongside entrepreneur Ernesto Schmitt, the platform was characterised by its use of themed Tribes to build groups.

Launching to the public in late 2016, DriveTribe allowed users to find groups with unique characteristics and personalities that best reflected their motoring interests, whilst being able to create their own tribes.

[1] DriveTribe was announced in April 2016, having been in stealth mode since December 2015, founded by the Top Gear trio; Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, alongside Ernesto Schmitt, a serial entrepreneur who had recently exited Beamly.

[6][7] The platform was launched as the home for motoring, similar to what "Twitch (is) for video games or TripAdvisor for travel.

There's no grand-scale online motoring community where people can meet and share video, comments, information and opinion.

[9] Made up of thousands of tribes, including racing driver Oliver James Webb, motoring journalist Jethro Bovingdon, Finnish blogger Sara Nase, Mark Webber, Damon Hill and many others, the platform initially limited who was able to start a tribe.

[15] In 2019 the FoodTribe website and YouTube channel were launched, focusing and food and drinks, with Rachel Hogg being appointed as editor.

DriveTribe hinged on the concept that users would sign up to the "tribe", each with its own "unique characteristics and personality,", that best reflects their motoring interests, whilst being able to create their own.

Content was envisioned to be created by the three presenters, an editorial staff of between 15 and 30 full-time members, as well as attracting "stars, bloggers, writers, and videographers" to create their own content, "delivered across multiple platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat), while automatically tailoring headlines, images, and layout to individual consumers".

[28][29] Co-Founder Richard Hammond stated that they would be keeping the DriveTribe community alive through their established social media and YouTube channel.