Google has launched its own ride-sharing service which interestingly won’t be worrying Uber and Lyft anytime soon. The new ride-sharing service is called Waze Carpool.
The new ride-sharing service is currently limited to the San Francisco Bay Area. Drivers and riders have to launch the Waze app in order to Carpool to their desired location.
Unlike Uber and San Francisco-based Lyft, Waze Carpool aims to connect drivers and riders that are heading to the same destination. The former two are more towards an on-demand taxi service rather than a ride-sharing platform. In essence, there is a significantly higher possibility of a Carpool driver to ferry his fellow colleague to and fro work.
At the moment, Waze Carpool is limited to just 25,000 employees in larger San Francisco-based companies, for example Google, Walmart and Adobe. In order to discourage taxi drivers, drivers are limited to just two trips a day, which is meant to ferry their riders to and fro work. Furthermore, the low fare of 54 cents a mile is also there to prevent taxi drivers from abusing the service. At the moment, Google is not taking a cut in the riders’ fare.
If Waze Carpool proves to be successful in the Bay Area, don’t be surprised that we will see its availability locally in the near future. What do you think, would the Waze Carpool option be viable for Malaysians?
