Tuesday, March 19

Google’s Waze Expands Carpooling Service in the US

With the community-based GPS Navigation App called Waze, Google will start to offer its pay-to-carpool service throughout the US. This is a step towards reducing the commute-time congestion for which the app has been basically designed.

This expansion is built upon a carpooling system that Waze began testing two years ago. Initially, it began in northern California and Israel before gradually extending it into Brazil and parts of 12 other states. Now, the service will be made available to all the users in the US.

“We don’t want to be a professional driving network,” Waze founder and CEO Noam Bardi said. “We see ride-sharing as something that needs to become part of the daily commute. If we can’t get people out of their cars, it won’t be solving anything.”

For the purpose of giving someone a ride, the users only need Waze’s app on their phone. It is expected to be quite similar to what it would cost to take public transportation to work. Talking about the details, over 1.3 million drivers and passengers have signed up for Waze’s carpooling service.

As of now, about 30 million people in the US  rely on the Waze app for directions and also it has 110 million users worldwide. This is by Google seems to create a challenge and a tough fight for the ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft.