Google's Waze is Shutting Down Its Carpooling Service

Google-owned navigation service Waze is shutting down its six-year-old carpooling service, citing shifting commuting patterns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. From a report: Starting in September, the company will begin the process of winding down its carpooling service, which had been available in the US, Brazil, and Israel. Waze said it will explore other ways it can help serve the 150 million customers worldwide that use its navigation app. "While Waze was predominantly a commuting app pre-COVID, today the proportion of errands and travel drives have surpassed commutes," the company said in a statement provided to The Verge. "This means we have an opportunity to find even more impactful ways to bring together a global community to share real-time insights and help each other outsmart traffic -- this is what has always made Waze truly special." First launched in the Bay Area in 2016, Waze Carpool eventually expanded to all 50 states in the US as well as Brazil and Waze's country of origin, Israel. The service was different from carpooling services offered by Uber and Lyft insofar as it let nonprofessional drivers offer rides to people traveling on a similar route for a nominal fee. In 2018, the company launched its own standalone carpool app.

Wow...people did this?

[cayenne8]

In this day in age, I couldn't possibly imagine letting an app pair me with a stranger(s) to ride in my car with me.

Sounds potentially dangerous not knowing WTF you're picking up...

Who knows their hygiene? Intentions?

[hears Riders on the Storm music starting to play]

Re:

[smooth wombat]

That sounds pretty paranoid, but I guess "in this day and age" we're all trained to be paranoid from the news and scared parents, among other things.

Says the person who most likely laughed at those who wore masks during covid, asking them what they were afraid of, but carries a gun to protect themself.

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[JackieBrown]

Says the person who most likely laughed at those who wore masks during covid, asking them what they were afraid of, but carries a gun to protect themself.

That's quite a leap to deduce from an AC post

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[bill_mcgonigle]

You do know there's a difference between being afraid of your shadow and owning a fire extinguisher, right? These aren't binaries.

98% of people are great. 98% of the time the remaining 2% won't do something sketchy.

It's probably more dangerous to drive with a bad driver than to pick up a 'bad' hitchhiker.

And, if he smells like piss and BO he needs to get out at the next safe location.

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[x_t0ken_407]

You got all that from his comment? Lmao

Re: Wow...people did this?

[NagrothAgain]

All of the "ridesharing" companies started off with the idea of carpooling. It's just that most of them quickly figured out it didn't work, and switched to being a taxi company in all but name.

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[PastTense]

It's certainly more than name: taxi companies are subject to much more government regulation than Uber/Lyft type companies. Sometimes these regulations offer useful consumer protection.

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[q_e_t]

It's certainly more than name: taxi companies are subject to much more government regulation than Uber/Lyft type companies.

It depends on location. In many countries those companies are subject to the same regulation as taxi firms.

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[nerdonamotorcycle]

Sometimes they also do more harm than good by placing artificial restrictions on supply. In many US cities the real value of owning a taxi medallion isn't in the revenue from providing passenger service for a fee, it's capital gains from the appreciation of the medallion. Any proposal to expand the number of available taxis is thus fought tooth-and-nail by incumbent medallion owners who do not want to see their asset diluted by the creation of additional medallions. The result is that it's damned hard to

Re:

[q_e_t]

There are plenty of sites and organisations that help support regular, repeated ride-sharing, they just don't try to make tons of money from it. On-demand actual ride-sharing as a concept hits a lot of issues with safety that regular, vetted arrangements don't tend to have, so whilst it's great in theory by using 'the interwebs' it's not so viable in practice.

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[dada21]

I tried to do it, actually.

1. I have no need for extra money.

2. I drive an oddball 2 door electric so Uber and Lyft said no.

3. I would love to help someone get to a destination cheap or even free if I'm heading that way.

I scheduled rides (even to the store, etc) way in advance and never had a single bite -- even though I live in a very busy area and drive to very busy areas.

I would LOVE for Google to connect me to riders, even if it was free, just so I could help folks out.

I have zero fear of someone kidnap

Re:

[cayenne8]

I think you have to be open to the possibility that would-be commuters saw "I'm really so very excited about putting you in my car and driving you to a second location, also I have a gun" and swiped left.

What's the use of getting a carry concealed license if you aren't going to carry all the time?

You don't, however, advertise to everyone you are carrying...hence the "concealed" part.

Re:Wow...people did this?

[CubicleZombie]

In this day in age, I couldn't possibly imagine letting an app pair me with a stranger(s) to ride in my car with me.

Sounds potentially dangerous not knowing WTF you're picking up...

In Northern Virginia, there are literal hitch-hiking lines for carpooling. They call it "Slug Lines", or "Slugging". And it worked for many years. Park at Potomac Mills Mall (or other places) and go stand in groups labelled by destination while lines of cars wait to pick up riders.

It was completely self organized and worked well. Thousands of people did this every day and I never heard of any incidents. And there were rules. Nobody talks. No money changes hands. The riders get a free trip and the drivers get to use the carpool lanes.

Given how self centered and cut throat people around here are, this amazed me.

Pretty cool

[SuperKendall]

In Northern Virginia, there are literal hitch-hiking lines for carpooling.

That is really interesting, I had never heard about that.

It makes a ton of sense, especially around rush hour when you would be happy to have a few others ride with you to save 30 minutes using the carpool lane, and as you say helping others is a nice bonus.

I wonder if anything like that happens in any other states, or if it's even happening in Virginia after Covid.

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[tlhIngan]

That is really interesting, I had never heard about that.

It makes a ton of sense, especially around rush hour when you would be happy to have a few others ride with you to save 30 minutes using the carpool lane, and as you say helping others is a nice bonus.

I wonder if anything like that happens in any other states, or if it's even happening in Virginia after Covid.

It happened in quite a few places - it was a popular way to get around in major metropolitan areas where a carpool lane could save a significant

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[flogger]

Yup, I've used random carpooling as both a passenger and a driver. I am generally trustful, but I do ask to see the ID and txt it to a friend, "just in case," but I've never had an issue. I was also a frequent couch surfer user and provider. I've only had positive experiences with trusting strangers.

Of course. A temporary change in habits

[greytree]

... would lead any company to abandon its ideas and fold.

Nope. Only Google.
They should change their name to Fickle.

Better use of resources

[pvt_medic]

This always seemed like a bad idea and poor focus of resources for their small operation. They spent a lot of time and effort on this while other navigation apps dramatically improved their base experience. I hope they can regain some focus as Apple Maps has made great improvements recently and has really given them a run for their money I view in driving experience. And we all know Google Maps is just leaching data off Waze users/editors.

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[Malc]

And we all know Google Maps is just leaching data off Waze users/editors.

Sounds like a good reason not to use Waze :). Actually I stopped using Waze because I hated its routing choices: in its effort to save 2 mins, it would often choose routes that were much more effort, more liable to unexpected delays or down residential streets only one car width wide (Iâ(TM)m in London) resulting in delays when encountering every oncoming vehicle where one of the vehicles would have to reverse to a gap in the par

No longer bright and shiny

[chandler-mark]

Coming soon to KBG? https://killedbygoogle.com/ [killedbygoogle.com]

Like Samsung Bixby

[nerdonamotorcycle]

Waze's carpooling always seemed to me to be an analog to Samsung's Bixby. Their attempt to get in on ridesharing a la Uber/Lyft with a decidedly inferior product. And, like Samsung did with Bixby, they kept pushing it despite nobody using it or wanting it. I'm just glad I'm not going to be activating that annoying screen when I use Waze any more.

At least I won't accidentaly bump into that screen

[drafalski]

I wished there was an opt out so brushing the screen wrong while driving would stop dumping me into that useless feature.