Google’s Waze is shutting down Waze Carpool, a service designed to connect drivers to commuters, starting next month. The company says the six-year-old service is being shut down because of changes in commuting patterns caused by the pandemic.
The service was first launched in San Francisco in 2016 and has since expanded to the rest of the US, Brazil and Israel. The company launched a standalone ride-sharing app in 2018.
“Driving behavior on the road has changed: while Waze was primarily a commuter app before COVID, there are now more errands and travel drivers than commuters,” a WAZE spokesperson told TechCrunch in an e-mail. “We hope that by redoubling our efforts to help cities solve traffic problems, such as congestion, safety, sustainability and cost, will continue to have an impact in the real world.”. To achieve this, we will exit the WAZE ride-sharing service and focus our efforts on better supporting drivers currently on the road.
Waze Carpool’s goal is to connect people with carpooling on their routes to help save money and fuel while reducing the number of cars on rush-hour roads. The app lets passengers and drivers find their ride-sharing partners based on personal information, star ratings, the number of mutual friends and customizable filters such as gender, co-workers or classmates. The application is designed to display the best matches, such as the person closest to the preferred route or a co-worker.
Unlike car-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft, Waze’s aim is not to make drivers money. Instead, it is seen as a way for drivers to provide rides for commuters who travel the same route as them for a small fee. Drivers can then use the HOV lanes to get to their work more quickly, reducing the number of cars on the road.
Given the paradigm shift caused by the pandemic and the fact that more people work from home, Waze carpooling may no longer have a steady flow of commuters, making the service viable.
“We are proud of what we have achieved through WAZE Carpool and are grateful to the Carpool community for sharing driving and cooperation to get cars off the road,” the spokesperson said.
Waze says it will focus on finding more impactful ways to bring global communities together to share real-time insights and help each other beyond transportation. The company wants to focus on better supporting drivers on the road and helping cities solve mobility problems.
Waze noted that as the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and people drive more than ever before, it is seeing more road miles than before the pandemic. In the United States, the figure is 5 to 15 percent higher than before the pandemic, depending on the states, the company said.