Waze Carpool is expanding throughout California after months of testing in the Bay Area.<\/b>
\nWaze, the car navigation app owned by Google, on Wednesday said it will expand its carpooling services to all California cities starting June 6.
After experimenting for more than a year in northern California and Israel, Waze\u2019s carpool expansion into cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego signals the first move in a long-anticipated spread across the United States.
\u201cFollowing thriving public pilots in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Monterey and across Israel, the expansion is a sign of the company\u2019s deepening commitment to its Carpool platform, \u201d Waze said in a statement. \u201cThe move is a natural one for Waze, a community-first organization on a mission to impact global mobility and congestion.\u201d
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 in which more than 80 people showed up to share their Waze Carpool experience.
\u201cWe had a woman who met her boyfriend through Waze Carpool, \u201d said Fried. \u201cIt makes the world a smaller place. I think when people get themselves into the carpool mindset, they open themselves to the world.\u201d
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\u2019s biggest test so far.
\u201cWhen we entered the Bay Area and Israel, we went in quietly and relied on word of mouth to spread our app, \u201d said Fried. \u201cThis is really our attempt to go into a new market and announce that we are here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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