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About two years ago Google spent $1 billion to acquire what was arguably the most popular navigation app on Android, Waze. This was done for an obvious reason, the Waze app had some pretty amazing and useful navigation features. Ever since Google’s acquisition of the app, the search giant has been incorporating the best of these features into Google Maps.
Even though Google acquired Waze they still let them be their own company and do their own things. This is very apparent today as Reuters is reporting that Waze is on the verge of launching a carpooling pilot program in Israel. Said carpooling program will reportedly be called RideWith and will allow customers to pay other drivers a fee for a ride to and from their job. This will all be done through a RideWith app, which will be designed to learn the routes that drivers usually take to and from work. The app will then be able to locate other users of the app who are going the same direction to work and match them up together.
All of this information comes directly from Waze, this is what they had to say to Reuters, “We’re conducting a small, private beta test in the greater Tel Aviv area for a carpool concept, but we have nothing further to announce at this time.” Waze getting into the ride-sharing market shouldn’t be that surprising if you think about how popular the idea is to companies and how appealing the idea is to commuters.
Right now at least, it looks as though drivers for the RideWith service will be limited to just two rides per day and will also not be earning a salary from the service. This was more than likely done in an attempt to prevent any Uber-like drama that arises from drivers walking away with a profit. This paired with how young the RideWith service is will more than likely mean that the service will be a bit handicapped when it comes to the number of drivers. But, as more commuters learn of the service and spread the word it could eventually turn into something big.