Waze, the car navigation app owned by Google, on Wednesday said it will expand its carpooling services to all California cities starting Tuesday.
After experimenting for more than a year in northern California and Israel, Waze’s carpool expansion into cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego signals the first move in a long-anticipated spread across the United States.
“Following thriving public pilots in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Monterey and across Israel, the expansion is a sign of the company’s deepening commitment to its Carpool platform,” Waze said in a statement. “The move is a natural one for Waze, a community-first organization on a mission to impact global mobility and congestion.”
Through a separate carpool app or its main app, a user can find a driver commuting in the same general direction to work or home. The user pays the driver a fee, usually calculated at a rate to cover gas and other maintenance needs. The fees are never greater than 54 cents per mile, the federal mileage rate.
As a result, ride shares on Waze Carpool are often considerably cheaper than competitors such as uberPOOL and Lyft Line. But there are caveats: Waze Carpool rides need to be reserved hours in advance and only can be used up to two times per day.
The expansion comes after months of refinement through customer feedback, said Waze Carpool general manager Josh Fried. One such improvement is the ability for drivers to pick up two passengers so they can get on the I-80 carpool lane on the Bay Bridge.
Fried said the feedback has been largely supportive. He spoke at a town hall meetup in March at which more than 80 people showed up to share their Waze Carpool experience.
“We had a woman who met her boyfriend through Waze Carpool,” said Fried. “It makes the world a smaller place. I think when people get themselves into the carpool mindset, they open themselves to the world.”
Despite the relative success of Waze Carpool in the Bay Area, Los Angeles may be a different beast, according to Fried. With a far more car-centric culture and lifestyle in a much larger city, the expansion into southern California may be Waze Carpool’s biggest test so far.
“When we entered the Bay Area and Israel, we went in quietly and relied on word of mouth to spread our app,” said Fried. “This is really our attempt to go into a new market and announce that we are here.”
