Waze to expand across San Francisco – and undercut UberPOOL

Google is expanding its ridesharing app, Waze, across San Francisco – and will undercut market leaders Uber and Lyft!

Waze gives users traffic conditions and real-time driving directions across maps. An extension to the app offering carpooling matching was launched in May as a pilot, and connects drivers and passengers through the app, similarly to UberPOOL. This pilot will now expand across the whole San Francisco Bay area and, if all goes well, into other cities across the US- potentially by the end of the year!

Waze charges riders a maximum of 54 cents per mile, with no booking fee, which works out considerably cheaper than UberPOOL and Lyft, who also operate in San Fran. The charges to passengers cover the basic price of fuel per mile and maintenance of the vehicle.

Interestingly, Lyft announced last week that they were pulling their similar ‘Carpool Commute’ option due to a lack of interest.

Of course, there’s no need to be in San Francisco to share your journey to work. You can add a journey to Liftshare either as a driver or passenger and find your match amongst our 700,000 members anywhere in the world!

Photo credit: Wikimedia