Waze begins testing its carpooling services in San Francisco
Getting to work can be a pain and expensive, but ever since Lyft introduced Lyft Carpool, we’ve been wondering if anyone else is going to bring something similar to the table. As it turns out, Waze — has been testing its own carpool services in its home country of Israel since 2015 — has just started testing Waze Carpool in the San Francisco Bay area.
Those in the San Francisco Bay area can apply for the program and use the Waze Rider app to find others that are heading in the general vicinity of their destination.
Once installed, the Waze Rider app notifies you of various patrons who are on their way to work. Once you approve of the passengers, the gas cost is shared with the other riders in the car and the payment is handled by Waze themselves.
Being as this is a pilot program, Waze is not taking any cut of the pay that the driver can make. Aside from the shared gas costs, drivers will be making 54 cents per mile which is the set rate provided by the IRS.
It will be interesting to see how this program performs in the early going and to see where it ends up next. My bet is either New York or Florida, although Waze hasn’t revealed plans on where they’ll be headed next.