
Waze Carpool - artsandsci
https://www.waze.com/carpool/
======
dawhizkid
The reason why I would not consider Google to legitimately compete with
Uber/Lyft at scale in this arena is because it's not part of their nature to
staff customer support at the level required to run operationally-intensive
businesses.

The rate in which something goes wrong in the real world (esp where money in
exchanged) is much higher than in a pure software world, and Google is going
to try to take the FAQ/chatbot/no phone approach to service when it's going to
need to staff entire buildings with agents if it doesn't want to completely
piss off a nascent user base.

~~~
cornholio
Unlike Uber, they appear to talk about a real carsharing system, as opposed to
a taxi service with a lower entry barrier.

The prices will be much lower since we are talking about the marginal cost of
adding another passenger to an already happening trip - and with full info on
where people are going, Waze effectively has an endless supply of trips that
are happening, it's just a matter of displaying a pop-up "Hey, Alex is going
to the same place as you, do you want to give him a ride for 5$?". So the
actual support required will be minimal to zero, it's just a software app to
simplify what people already do, not a full transport service.

~~~
pavel_lishin
You just described the pure software world solution.

What happens when the commuter I pick up vomits in my car? Or steals something
from my car? What happens if I get picked up by a person who changes their
mind about where they're going? Or decide to take an unplanned detour to go to
the store, or back home to grab the laptop they forgot, or to score some
heroin?

What happens when the driver gropes me? Or I grope the driver?

You absolutely need actual support, it's not going to be minimal-to-zero. Both
the driver and the passenger need to be able to pick up a phone number and
speak to a real human being who can resolve some sort of issue.

~~~
cornholio
The same thing that happens in the non-Waze case: you kick them out, call the
police, get mugged etc.

The pure software world exists from Google's perspective, they provide zero
support and then it's just a matter of individual choice if you want to use
the service or not.

Google can go a long way into making this significantly safer than random
pick-up: you can select female only drivers or riders, only riders from your
area, they can implement a minimal account age that uniquely identifies the
wazer simply via ride history - even if they use an anonymous login and fake
credit card data, and so on.

It's a bit harder to protect against rogue riders since they need to be able
to use the app immediately, but still, phone number and credit card
verification is much better the letting a random stranger into your car. If
not too intrusive, they could even ask riders for a frontal picture that the
driver can verify and that remains on record. So for people who would carpool
anyway, it's a much better option.

~~~
pron
> The same thing that happens in the non-Waze case: you kick them out, call
> the police, get mugged etc.

It's not so simple. Normally people, at least in cities, rarely hitchhike or
take up hitchhikers. The goal here is to make it acceptable, and naturally
greatly increase the frequency this is happening. This can be reasonably taken
as an endorsement by Google to the driver/passenger, because it is -- they
want this to happen more often, and are essentially saying "it's OK to
hitchhike through our app". This means that they can reasonably be seen as
taking part in the entire transaction and assuming some portion of the
liability.

~~~
Retric
Read up on DC slug lines. We are talking 10,000's of people doing this daily
with very minor government support for the last 15+ years. Mostly awareness
and signage.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging)

~~~
ansible
I was reading an article about 10 years ago about this ride-sharing in the DC
metro area. We discussed how a smartphone app could make all this much easier
and smoother. We didn't follow up on it back then...

It wasn't (and won't likely to be) the only big missed opportunity in my life.

~~~
halflings
Survivorship bias makes us forget about the other dozens of "taxi/carpooling
apps" that did not succeed.

"The Upstarts" [0] talks about some of those.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Upstarts-Airbnb-Companies-Silicon-
Cha...](https://www.amazon.com/Upstarts-Airbnb-Companies-Silicon-Changing-
ebook/dp/B01HZFB3X0)

------
tytso
The really big difference between Waze Carpool and Uber/Lyft is that the
driver is paid at most 54 cents a mile (e.g., gas money), and Waze will only
match the driver with passengers for two trips / day.

So it is _not_ designed to be something where the driver will make a living,
but really just as a way for a driver to get some company, maybe take
advantage of the HOV lanes, and it gets some cars off of the road to reduce
congestion.

This has impacts to the sort of insurance drivers will need to get, since it's
really no different from traditional car pooling. I would not be surprised if,
over time, the system tries to pair people who have previously shared rides
together for subsequent trips (unless either party rates the other as, "would
rather not share a ride with this person"). Knowing that you are sharing the
ride with the same person that you normally share your car with would make for
a much better user experience, since people are, after all, social creatures.

~~~
mjs7231
I was interested in checking this out until you mentioned driver is paid at
most $0.54 per mile. That really stinks for city travel where commute times
are long and parking at the downtown destinations is expensive. There is no
incentive for me to pick up a carpooler on my 30 minute 6 mile drive into the
city where parking costs $26/day. In rush hour traffic, it'll easily add an
extra 15-20 minutes to my commute each way to pick anyone up.

It would subsidize $6.50 of my parking but I'd end up with an extra 30-40m of
driving each day. Perhaps it's better than nothing?

~~~
tytso
If you are going into the city anyway for work, you can drop off your
passenger near a subway stop, and continue into work. The assumption is that
you were driving anyway, and so the cost of adding a carpooler and dropping
him or her maybe 3-5 minutes out of your normal drive.

You're right that if you need to go out of your way at pickup or dropoff, or
if you weren't going to drive into the city anyway because parking is $$$,
this isn't going to work for you. But then that wasn't the intended target
audience. If the goal is to get cars off the road, and you weren't going to
drive, but take light rail as the saner way to commute into the city --- then
by all means, continue using rail or light rail for your commute!

------
JumpCrisscross
I use this (and Scoop) in the Bay Area. It's slower and requires some decorum.
A 25-minute trip may take, including waiting, 45. And a ride I might have
spent on the phone or napping requires, at the very least, respectful silence.

On the plus side, it's far cheaper (three or four dollars versus $10 for
Line/Pool and $20 for X/Line). And conversations with drivers are usually
quite delightful.

On the latter, I am mixed about my preference to converse with fellow well-
paid, well-educated technologists. I don't know if this is resource-saving
camaraderie or a furthering of a classist California where blue and white
collars fall into further mutual isolation.

~~~
eganist
> On the latter, I am mixed about my preference to converse with fellow well-
> paid, well-educated technologists. I don't know if this is resource-saving
> camaraderie or a furthering of the mutual isolation of white and blue collar
> Californians.

I mean, if you're not talking to your uber/lyft driver as-is...

I don't know. I'm convinced Facebook's done enough of that class segregation
for us already. At least in the case of peer carpools, people are actually
talking.

~~~
freehunter
>Facebook's done enough of that class segregation for us already

I'm convinced the Bay Area itself has done enough of that segregation. Isn't
that the entire reason people move there? Every time I ask why someone moved
to SV, they say it's because that's where all of the tech talent is. Why is
your startup headquartered in SV? Because that's where all the tech talent is.
The only reason SV exists is because it's self-segregated into a high density
of well-paid, well-educated technologists.

There are many places around the country that have tech jobs and a far lower
cost of living, but why do people choose SV instead of those other places?
Because SV has a higher density of people who are _just like me_.

~~~
dmix
I'm not sure why anyone would need to feel guilty or worry about that fact
though.

People do that everywhere. Toronto is famous for it's diversity and
multiculturalism but the entire city is finely divided into various ethnic,
cultural, and work enclaves (little korea, little ethiopia, 2x little italys,
etc). And it works great for the most part, there's little ethnic or political
tension, at least within the city proper.

It's a natural phenomenon. The simple fact is people primarily like being near
people like themselves, culturally or otherwise. Intellectuals, working class,
artists etc, etc have always grouped up.

Absent some type of grand social engineering I don't see how you could change
that. Nor whether the people would be better of with it.

But just because there are enclaves or grouping doesn't mean you need to be
isolated in your social networks either. Cities are big places with plenty of
people and SF is no different.

~~~
freehunter
>I'm not sure why anyone would need to worry about that fact

SV is famous for solving problems that impact SV or cities like SV. Whenever I
hear the question from startup/techie folks "are we in a bubble", I always
think the answer is "yes, but not how you think". We're not in a bubble of too
many high valuation startups, we're in a bubble where we don't understand the
rest of the world around us. Because we're living paycheck to paycheck on a
$250k salary in a $5k/mo studio apartment getting our food from Postmates and
having drones deliver our Amazon packages. And after a while, you start to
think that's just how it is. But it's not. Not for the vast majority of people
who don't live in SV, Austin, or Seattle.

That's the value diversity brings, that's the danger of suburbs everyone's
been talking about since forever, and that's where the Bay Area is going.
Quickly.

The closest Whole Foods to me is over an hour and a half away. Until last
year, the closest Trader Joe's was over 3 hours away. I work in tech making
six figures, and my neighbor (living in a detached, single family home) is a
diesel mechanic. The guy on the other side owns his own home but just works as
a cashier at the local grocery store, because our cost of living isn't
ridiculous and you can afford a house on $12/hr. Even myself, I recently got
schooled when I said $65k/yr doesn't make you rich: the number of people
popping out of the wood-work to say what making $65k would mean to them and
what luxuries it could afford them was astounding. Just hitting $65k would
double most of their income.

We don't have Uber around here. We don't have Postmates. Amazon doesn't
deliver same-day. We can't get Google to drop off our groceries for us. Our
employers don't have a bus to take us to work. Some people may say "but all of
those luxuries are the reason why we moved to SV!", but in response I say all
of those luxuries are reasons massing together in SV is so harmful. First, it
colors our worldview to think our life is normal. Secondly, it ignores
everyone else in the world and the real problems they have.

I'm not even talking about segregating races and ethnicities. I'm sure there's
plenty of diversity of skin color and ethnic background in SV. But there's a
lot more diversity that exists than the ones the law says you have to respect.
And their problems aren't being solved by people in SV, because people in SV
don't even know they exist.

~~~
lotsofpulp
Assuming you want to make as much money as possible, focusing on the problems
of the portion of the population that makes the most money seems most
efficient, i.e. educated professionals in urban areas.

------
udioron
I live in Israel in a city called Modiin and use public transportion to visit
client offices out of town. The public transportation by train to Tel Aviv,
Hertzelia and Haifa is great, but anything else is somewhere between terrible
and nonexistent. In the past year I use Waze Carpool and Moovit (
[https://www.moovitapp.com/](https://www.moovitapp.com/) , both developed and
beta tested/dog-fooded in Israel) to get to those "unreachable" destinations
at random schedules. A few times the results have been amazingly positive -
being able to carpool with someone that lives just next to me and by chance
needs to arrive exactly to my destination at the same time - and for the
fraction of the price or the hassle of any other transportation method!

In fact - two of these drivers told me their family have gone down from two
cars to a single car since using Waze Carpool, Moovit and public
transportation to commute on a daily basis - a surprising statement from
people living in a suburb such as Modiin. Once I was carpooled by a driver
that responded to my request within 5 minutes and spent at least extra 25
minutes just to pick me up from a random spot in Jeruslaem for a 35 minute
journey leaving me at my doorstep - saving me at least an hour, and probably
for less than I would have paid for a bus.

~~~
udioron
However: The app suffers from various minor glitches. For example: Whe I
installed the app I have selected "Home" and "Work" addresses, having one of
my client's offices as "Work". Since then I keep getting daily notification
with suggestions for riding back and forth to my "Office" although I do not
commute there daily. The app does not include any option to control those
notifications or disable the "Work" address. Customer support did respond
quickly to my problem, but did not supply a good solution.

------
scandox
I was in Israel last year and they just love Waze. Everything is Waze this and
Waze that. They have an absolute belief in Waze as a brand. Most have no idea
it is owned by Google, nor seemed very interested when I mentioned it.

So I'd say if they can get this working anywhere, it will be in a traffic-
riddled country full of people who obsess over journey times and who
absolutely love this brand.

~~~
kamaln7
Can confirm. Just like "Kleenex" in some places, Waze has become the generic
term for GPS Navigation here in Israel. Honestly, I have no idea why people
still use it when Google Maps has an infinitely better interface and no ads.

~~~
jonknee
> Honestly, I have no idea why people still use it when Google Maps has an
> infinitely better interface and no ads.

In some areas it has much better traffic routing. All it takes is getting
alerted to one big jam ahead of time and you'll use it every commute.

~~~
bduerst
Yep. Based on my experience: Waze takes side roads to give you the
chronologically shortest route, Google Maps takes the most direct route.

------
tabeth
Why isn't there a service that says:

1\. Hey this is my route _every_ morning.

2\. Lets you see people's routes and "join".

This doesn't need to be a centralized service. People could organize things
among themselves. There are carpooling sites, but it requires a critical mass
to be useful.

~~~
Tiktaalik
Why don't we hire a bunch of experts to figure out what the most common and
efficient routes are for the most people and then hire people to run those
routes regularly?

Oops I just invented buses again, just the rest of these transportation
startups eventually end up doing.

The extremely boring answer to our transportation problems is to properly fund
public transportation. We've known the solution for ages, but it's kept down
by the wealthy class who don't want to pay for public works that would benefit
everyone.

~~~
darksaints
> The extremely boring answer to our transportation problems is to properly
> fund public transportation. We've known the solution for ages, but it's kept
> down by the wealthy class who don't want to pay for public works that would
> benefit everyone.

I'd say the middle class are the real problem.

You see, the primary reason why transit costs so much in taxes is because few
people ride it. Few people ride it because driving is heavily subsidized.
Since transit is a step-fixed cost business, the marginal cost of a new rider
is nearly zero. A bus running at 20% capacity might be 50% subsidized, but a
bus running at 80% capacity might be making a 30% profit.

If the cost drivers incurred matched the costs they impose on society, driving
would be extremely expensive in comparison, and drivers would flock to transit
in droves, completely changing the necessity for subsidizing transit...either
reducing it, eliminating it, or even making it wildly profitable as the
streetcar barons found out before driving was subsidized.

However, if you propose raising gas taxes so that driving actually covers its
costs, the concern trolls come out of the woodwork about taxes hurting the
working poor, no doubt completely unconcerned about how much their comfortable
middle class household would have to pay.

But here's a proposal: raise the gas tax, but refund the increase in costs on
a means-tested basis. Poof, there goes the concern trolling, but the middle
class is still on the hook and they _really_ don't like it, because it might
mean that they have to make different decisions about their lifestyle and
location and habits.

~~~
jimmaswell
You'd be destroying a culture of independence in the US punishing car drivers
so much, and I don't think it would be nearly worth it. I greatly appreciate
being able to just go where I want without having to be beholden to public
transit schedules and share the space with a bunch of strangers, and have my
own temperature controls etc.

The "cost" cars have to society and how "subsidized" they are is ridiculously
overblown around here. I had to pay maybe $400 registering+inspecting my car
in NY, transfering to NJ was a few more hundred dollars, I had to pay to take
the permit test, insurance was $350/month in NY and it's $115/month in NJ,
taxes used for roads benefit transit too obviously, and bad drivers pay their
externalities in tickets and insurance settlements.

~~~
darksaints
> You'd be destroying a culture of independence in the US punishing car
> drivers so much, and I don't think it would be nearly worth it.

Is it really independence if you can't cover the costs you impose? Sounds an
awful lot like the "oppression" felt by angsty teenagers without jobs when
they're told they have to empty a dishwasher.

> I greatly appreciate being able to just go where I want without having to be
> beholden to public transit schedules and share the space with a bunch of
> strangers, and have my own temperature controls etc.

I'm sure you do. I'd greatly appreciate being able to fly private, for all of
the same reasons, but unfortunately I can't afford it. If you want it, you
should pay the cost to get it. And that cost is gonna be about $6/gallon in
extra taxes.

> The "cost" cars have to society and how "subsidized" they are is
> ridiculously overblown around here. [...]

Still not enough. As long as cities, states, and the federal government are
taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of the general fund to build and
maintain roads, you aren't even close to covering your costs. And that would
be before congestion charges, carbon taxes, appropriately priced bridge tolls,
etc.

What is overblown is the independence and financial responsibility of the
average person who merely pays their bills for actions that are heavily
subsidized.

~~~
jimmaswell
It's fine for things to be subsidized and taxes collected so that a way of
life is more attainable, that's how societies work. In all likelihood I'm
subsidizing the people around here who use NJ transit in place of driving - I
hardly have my car on for more than 10 minutes a day and it's around 30mpg.
It's just part of a larger give-and-take that we all participate in, I pay for
trains I don't use today and they pay for state parks they don't use tomorrow.
Are you opposed to all government subsidies? It's not tenable for everybody to
pay the full cost of everything they do. A prime example is healthcare.

~~~
darksaints
It's not okay to subsidize things in general, and especially things with
massive negative externalities (like cars), when the person using that subsidy
can easily afford it. And let's face it, the middle class can easily afford
$8/gallon. Nobody wants to pay that, but they can afford it. As a proof that
people can afford it, we have dozens of first world counties with strong
middle classes that correctly price their road taxes. They do just fine.

I've never understood the idea that we should just cross subsidize every
single thing we can. It's absurd. Prices affect decisions, and when
artificially low prices induce people to collectively make decisions that are
bad for society, we should stop fucking subsidizing it.

Imagine how much better our government would be if we took all of the taxes we
take in, and stopped spending it all on things that are bad for society on
behalf of people that can afford it or don't need it, and started spending it
all on things that are good for society on behalf of people that need it but
can't afford it.

~~~
LitFan
Replying to the lowest level comment because this is the one where you call it
out specifically.

These subsidies aren't driven by an outcry from the population, they're driven
by groups of companies lobbying the government. Car companies would almost
certainly lobby against reducing gas subsidies - it would cause people to
reconsider buying a car.

Lobbyists will also be on the lookout for services like waze carpool because
it has the potential to cut in on their business (transit and taxis).

~~~
jimmaswell
I prefer a society with car subsidies and the freedom it brings to one with
the alleged externalities more compensated for where people are priced into
having to settle for transit. Freedom isn't free, as they say. More investment
in infrastructure for electric vehicles, like charging stations, and
incentives to use them (like NJ already does with waived inspections for
example) are a fine compromise.

Additionally, with such taxes on car use, I'm sure a lot of people would just
go places less and thus participate in the economy less, rather than take
transit. A direct comparison to another country with prohibitive gas taxes
isn't perfectly predictive of what would happen here because of cultural and
infrastructural differences.

------
noer
I worked for a state sponsored carpool app for nearly 5 years in the late
aughts/early 10s. This is exactly what I had wanted to build, but the state
didn't want to take a risk on mobile and ended up hiring a contractor to
develop a web app. The contractor went out of business one year into a five
year contract.

I still have an interest in Transportation Demand Management, but can't stand
the industry because it's almost always state sponsored and several steps
behind in terms of innovation. This is really cool and I hope that it catches
on.

------
Newtopian
We had a similar service 20-30 years ago operating mostly out of Quebec and
Ontario (Canada). Sadly regulators did not see it very kindly
([http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/province-stops-allo-
stop-1.211...](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/province-stops-allo-
stop-1.211740)). Story does not say though how thik was the kraft envelop that
was exchanged, if there was ever such exchange, or was just an overzealous
civil servant. The service had been operating for some time already and was
quite successful and popular. That decision came out of nowhere and the
service was forced to stop operations. All this well before smart phones apps
and the web... well technically the web was present but the service had
started well before that and was mostly operating with phone calls to an
actual office and bulletin boards and such.

For Allo-Stop yes there was exchange of money but the amounts were such that
it would be barely more than the split expenses for gas for the trip.

Wonder if this will be allowed, seeing how Uber is being forced to get taxi
licences and such for it's drivers, I doubt this will go very far around here.

~~~
ttul
In British Columbia, I'm sure the taxi lobby is already lining the pockets of
politicians to prevent Waze Carpool from happening.

------
avip
Waze carpool launched ~2Y ago in Israel. I've been a registered
driver/passenger for about a year now. Here's my summary:

    
    
      - I don't like the fact it's a separate app rather than part of waze.
      - Apparently matching rides is technically non-trivial. I was hit with so many false positives I could not cope and had to deregister (as a driver).
      - Car sharing is culturally challenging, even in Israel. I guess more so in the US.
      - This will no work.

~~~
penetrarthur
Let's hope it doesn't end up as Foursquare/Swarm.

------
NotSammyHagar
In Seattle or other cities where traffic congestion is such a problem, I'd
take someone for free if I could drive in the carpool lanes. I can even
imagine someone who could be paid for just being a body in the car by someone
really well off.

~~~
JacobDotVI
Washington, DC has slug lines, which are exactly that.

[http://www.slug-lines.com/Slugging/About_slugging.asp](http://www.slug-
lines.com/Slugging/About_slugging.asp)

~~~
joncrane
The weird thing about this is for some reason it's huge in NoVa but not so
much in the Maryland suburbs. Or at least it used to be. Not sure why.

~~~
jcranmer
Slugging doesn't seem to really exist on a sustained basis anywhere other than
NoVa. My guess is that it requires a specific set of circumstances to take
off: SOV commutes need to be generally feasible (so that you have drivers),
HOV lanes need to exist (so that drivers have a reason to pick up passengers),
you need specific job loci (to make driver/passenger matching exist), and you
need commuter buses (to provide the passengers).

The Pentagon and I-395 provide one of the most optimal conditions for
slugging, with the added bonus that you have effectively direct access ramps
from Springfield and the Pentagon that completely bypass the regular lanes.
Since I-66 was HOV-only during the rush hour until recently, that probably
retarded the existence of slugging despite HOV lanes (since the SOV backup
wasn't so feasible). Similarly, the lack of HOV lanes in MD (save for 270)
also retard the impetus for slugging.

~~~
joncrane
I think it might be that HOV- _only_ lanes need to exist. 270 Has HOV lanes
but it's just the left lane (out of minimum 3, sometimes 6).

------
edward
"Waze Carpool is available in the US (California, Texas) and Israel."

------
wkoszek
Folks from Silicon Valley should ask VCs to sponsor them trip to Europe, where
what they are essentially to solve is addressed. It's called public
transportation.

~~~
dingdongding
Public transportation is not perfect in every part of the world. That's the
reason we have Uber/Lyft/Taxis and carpooling apps

------
virgilp
Why don't they go global? I'm guessing "money exchanged" is the problem, but
I'd happily give away that[+]. Give me a reason to trust the "carpooler" and
that's all I ask. Heck, allow me to easily coordinate with my colleagues, and
that'd still be a gain.

[+] I don't care for the money, in the grand scheme of things you earn nothing
from this, I'd rather have the gratitude of the rider; In fact, that's how I
do it today when I pick a hitchhiker, I never take their money anyway.

~~~
ohtwenty
Blablacar exists, and is global. It's pretty common in the Netherlands.

~~~
virgilp
Blablacar works for long trips. My understanding is that Whatsapp was targeted
to the daily commute. I don't know anybody that uses blablacar for that, nor
is it optimized for it.

------
patelbhavesh
A few other similar services [http://libretaxi.org](http://libretaxi.org) most
of it open source except dependency on telegram
[http://www.twogo.com](http://www.twogo.com) by SAP

For young adults hopskipdrive.com ridezum.com zemcar.com

One thing to note is that there are two apps you need from waze.The waze app
is for driver of the carpool.Carpool app is for the rider.

~~~
joncrane
I think you're missing Scoop.

~~~
jsadow
Thanks for the shout joncrane :)

~~~
patelbhavesh
I apologize for missing scoop, even though I am regular user of it.

To add to the list and hopefully make it more complete

Scoop : [http://takescoop.com](http://takescoop.com)

Lyft Shuttle[In beta] : [http://lyft.com/shuttle](http://lyft.com/shuttle)

Uber ExpressPool : [https://www.uber.com/ride/express-
pool/](https://www.uber.com/ride/express-pool/)

I think the ridesharing businesses are making a real difference in optimizing
cars usage and helping the environment in the process.

------
daburninatorrr
I like this idea. I feel like many states already have hotlines you can call
to get matched with a carpool (I'm fairly certain NY does at least), and so to
me this seems like the natural progression of things. Plus, the fact that the
driver would get a small amount of money would create incentive to sign up,
but not create a new market like Uber/Lyft did. I'm interested to see what
comes of this.

~~~
fredley
This has been the promise of Waze and their competitors since they very first
went into business. I'll be fascinated to see if it works out. While on paper
it's a no-brainer (cheaper for everyone involved, and potentially faster when
using carpool lanes), the less tangible aspects of it (what if you hate the
person who's car your stuck in for an hour? Will people sacrifice control over
their timings, especially on the way home? etc. etc.) won't really be fully
understood until this is actually being used properly by a lot of people.

~~~
daburninatorrr
While true, I feel like that is just how carpooling mechanics work. When there
is a way for you to be randomly paired with strangers for a commute to and
from work, you always run the risk of not liking someone. I'm more interested
if there would be any penalty for the driver leaving without you because you
took too long or something. With something that is so easy to sign up for, one
would assume that feedback and accountability would also be easier to handle
than previously

------
jpmoyn
But will it actually get used? I like the idea but I am not sure if I would
actually WANT a stranger in my car when the time actually comes.

~~~
maeln
I don't know where you live but in my country (France), carpooling is very
popular. Waze being a very popular application here, it's very probable that
they manage to take on BlaBlaCar which basicly has a monopoly when it comes to
carpooling here.

~~~
yoran
I've always wondered why something like BlaBlaCar does not exist in the US. Or
why BlaBlaCar does not expand to the US.

True, people are more used to taking domestic flights because of distances but
I can think of routes, such as between NYC and Boston, where carpooling could
be a good alternative to the train and cheap buses. I'm sure there are others
too.

~~~
ghaff
Downtown to downtown, bus is pretty cheap though. They all advertise low-ball
rates and I'm not sure what a more realistic price is but it seems to be in
the range of $20-$40 or so.

------
natch
In the FAQ page they say this:

"We believe there is no stupid question, just ask if you need answers."

But then they give you no place to ask questions...

------
BatFastard
What Waze brings to the table is that it already knows your route and when you
travel. This is HUGE.

Now they just need to add a dating like feature that puts all democrats or
republicans in the same car so that fights don't break out!

~~~
freehunter
Or the exact opposite so that reasonable discourse and free exchange of
opinions can break out.

------
twostorytower
It's ironic to me that this is basically what Lyft started as (Zimride).

------
kaseyb002
I think it would be better if you gave drivers/customers complete control over
everything.

Let drivers choose their pick up area (like a circle on a map), drop off area,
price, pickup time (15-minute window), whitelist/blacklist customers, etc.

Then riders can see what drivers are offering and decide if it's worth it.
Riders could also post requests that drivers could bid for.

See here for an example of what I mean:
[https://github.com/kaseyb002/EgglerPool](https://github.com/kaseyb002/EgglerPool)

------
jsadow
This is a really great discussion on carpooling and our team is stoked to see
it. At Scoop ([https://www.takescoop.com](https://www.takescoop.com)), we've
been working to make carpooling convenient and enjoyable since early 2015. We
love seeing more (and bigger!) companies prioritize tackling the problems
commuters face getting to work every day.

We're really passionate about some of the topics that have come up in this
thread. Our ScoopCare team (real people!) is available throughout the day to
help make sure Scoop commuters are having the best possible commute
experience. Support availability is critical.

When it comes to safety, Scoop has performed Motor Vehicle history reports on
_every_ Driver in the community since day 1 - no one ever drives in a Scoop
carpool without a great driving record. We're the only carpool company to ever
do that, which is something we're pretty proud to say.

And most importantly, Scoop is for everyone. You don't have to work at a big
company or a white collar job -- that's why it's been so important to us to
partner with local governments, transit organizations like BART here in the
Bay Area, and business parks with 100s of employers -- in addition to major
employers.

The more than 2 million trips taken to-date with Scoop have included commuters
from all walks of life who are looking for a meaningful commute. The only
thing you have to believe is that there is a better way to spend your time on
the road.

If you're interested in learning more about Scoop, check out this article
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/11/08/with-36-...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/11/08/with-36-million-
in-financing-scoop-wants-to-make-carpooling-mainstream/), browse our open jobs
at jobs.lever.co/takescoop, or send us a note at feedback@takescoop.com.

I'll also be watching this thread for a bit so feel free to reply here!

\---

Full disclosure: I started Scoop with my brother, Rob --- and as an avid HN
reader, I wanted to comment directly to the HN community. We're really excited
to be solving a problem that impacts both SV and the world and would love for
you to join us.

~~~
patelbhavesh
I have been a happy Scoop/waze customer for sometime.I also run a 70 people
non-profit vanpool for my employer in SF bay area and we supplement Scoop/Waze
for timings when our vans do not operate.

Scoop seems to be a very humane company in the sense that rather then focusing
ONLY on algorithms they have spend the time to build human partnerships.

Examples of what I mean is the following 1>They contacted lawyers to ensure
non-immigrant populations[lots in bay area] do not get into trouble
[https://blog.takescoop.com/making-scoop-accessible-for-
all-6...](https://blog.takescoop.com/making-scoop-accessible-for-
all-6e8c4aec63e)

2>They worked with Bart to ensure scoop users get dedicated parking
[https://blog.takescoop.com/carpool-to-
bart-59d8555e79a2](https://blog.takescoop.com/carpool-to-bart-59d8555e79a2)

3>Partnership with commute.org to fairly distribute the $1 million grant
[https://blog.takescoop.com/scoop-partners-with-the-
carpool-i...](https://blog.takescoop.com/scoop-partners-with-the-carpool-in-
san-mateo-county-program-starting-this-summer-fe41456d3b14)

Disclaimer : I have no relationship whatsoever to Scoop.I just like
appreciating companies when they are trying to do the right think and thinking
differently to solve difficult problems.

Best of luck to the scoop team.keep up the good work

------
baumant
I use this in LA, its great because there is no bus that travels along my
commute. I hope this will see an influx of users, sometimes it's still hard to
find a ride

------
jessriedel
Previous attempts at this sort of service in Canada:

Blancride [https://blancride.com/](https://blancride.com/) Kangaride
[https://www.kangaride.com/](https://www.kangaride.com/)

Blancride in particular had a slick app. Unfortunately, I tried it a few times
and never had a good. People flaked at the last minute, wanted me (the driver)
to wait a long time, etc.

~~~
flodevelennes
Don't forget [https://www.poparide.com](https://www.poparide.com) (disclaimer,
I'm the founder), we started in British Columbia and are now active in Ontario
and Québec, with over 75,000 members.

Our model is closer to BlaBlaCar's in Europe (longer distance) but we do see
people using our app to commute to work, usually on distances of 50 miles or
more.

------
ruairidhwm
Looks just like BlaBlaCar. Nice.

~~~
flodevelennes
BlaBlaCar is actually a long-distance carpooling app, whereas Waze, Lyft Line
and Uber Pool are all targeting the shorter-distance, daily commuters.

BlaBlaCar does have a product in market for shorter trips, it's called
BlaBlaLines: [https://www.blablalines.com/](https://www.blablalines.com/) \-
although it's unclear what the adoption has been since they launched last year
in 2017 in France.

The challenge with shorter-distance, shared commutes is finding people who are
leaving and arriving at the same location. This is because people are not very
flexible when it comes to heading and coming back from work: they need to get
there on time, without any detours or delays.

This means that typically, you'd need to get people working at the same
company or in the same building to create a successful carpooling program.
Making it work outside of the scope of a regular schedule is very difficult.

This is why companies like Uber and Lyft pay drivers to show up on demand, as
in this model, you have more control over the supply-side of the marketplace,
providing a more predictable experience for passengers.

It'll be interesting to see how this goes, as Waze has a very strong community
of drivers. It's a challenge though, as some mentioned in this post, in that
there is decent overhead in managing drivers, passengers, conflicts and
everything that comes with building an online marketplace with a community
angle.

 _Disclaimer: I 'm the CEO and Co-founder of
[https://www.poparide.com](https://www.poparide.com), a long-distance
carpooling platform of 75,000 members based in Vancouver, BC (Canada) and our
model is similar to BlaBlaCar's, we aim to fill empty seats in cars on
intercity trips in Canada._

~~~
ruairidhwm
Hey

Ah, very interesting. I didn't know that! Poparide looks like a good solution
too.

------
mshenfield
They do a pretty good job of explaining it in the FAQ - but this app is not
exactly the same as Lyft and Uber. The biggest thing is that the Waze doesn't
collect a fee, and the fee drivers collect is currently set not to exceed the
IRS defined limit on per mile transportation deductions.

Also only in CA, TX, and Israel for now. If it comes to my state, this would
be cheaper than a bus for my commute.

------
dsnuh
What happens when you are a passenger injured in a car crash where you feel
the driver giving you the ride was at fault?

What happens if the person doesn't show and you are late to work?

I feel like there are going to be some interesting edge cases with this
approach.

~~~
JTon
> What happens if the person doesn't show and you are late to work?

Likely the same thing that happens today when public transit is delayed or
your car breaks down. I.e. It's your personal responsibility. Reliability of
the specific mode of transit should be taken into consideration.

------
illuminea
Google Carpool has been available in Israel for a while now. I've used it, it
works great. The only problem is there aren't enough drivers here (supply).
I've also used Moovit Carpool for getting rides, which works basically on the
same principle, and it is great. Carpools are as "insecure" as Airbnb and
Uber. It's all part of the sharing economy. I've met really interesting people
in my carpools. Both companies have support in case of issues etc. I totally
recommend trying out this concept. The only challenge seems to be building up
a big enough database of drivers.

------
jimnotgym
Waze and Wazer? As in rhymes with laze and laser. It reads a bit like wazzer
as in 'one who is known for urinating', I suppose?

To my British eyes I can't help but read 'wazzock', as in a 1980's schoolboy
insult _par excellence_ [0]. To rescue this comment with a semblance of an
arguement, what I'm trying to say is that maybe it's best to try the name in a
few languages/dialects before you go with it.
[0][https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/wazzock](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/wazzock)

~~~
danso
Naming things is hard. There's not a large supply of 4 letter words that would
serve as a succinct label for what Waze purports to do. Considering Waze was
sold for $1.3B, the founders probably aren't too worried about the
disadvantages of the name in the UK.

------
gricardo99
It looks just like Carma carpool[1], at least what they were attempting a
couple years ago. They've been around a while, but I guess never had the
network critical mass to really make it take off.

I've wanted to use a service like this for a while. I commute ~35 minutes solo
in my own car, and it's just wasteful and needlessly costly.

1 -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carma#Carma_Carpooling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carma#Carma_Carpooling)

------
Singletoned
This website took my processor to 60% in Firefox.

~~~
leviathant
This website had no noticeable effect on my processor in Firefox.

------
bob_theslob646
The question is can Waze change people's behavior?

The entire premise is on people planning.

Oh and by the way more cars =/ more traffic.

More cars traveling at the same time causes traffic.

If you want someone to blame, start blaming businesses who operate at the same
hours.

It still boggles my mind how 9 to 5 came about?

Has it not been shown that people work better at different times of the day?

~~~
lotsofpulp
Think about operating a business where coordination is required, such as
factories, or where meetings need to be conducted such as legal or finance
firms. Also, children are in school at a set time with a set schedule, for
obvious reasons, so their parents prefer also have a schedule.

------
commuter
I can speak from my own experience, I've been using Scoop for like 5mo now,
it's very good in matching. I live in Bay Area and 25mi commute could be
40-90min.

I tried Waze Carpool many times until I finally gave up - they tend to offer
ridiculous matches - way out of my route for both pick up and drop off.

------
smn1234
Just stumbled on this the other day from wanting to build this very similar
idea (e.g. BlaBlaCar in Europe) not just for commuting [to or from work] but
general travel- ride to the grocery store, movies, etc. I decided to see if
RideWith.com resolved to anything and boom... ended up on Waze Carpool

------
foxhop
OMG this is what the sharing economy is about, way to go Waze! I can't wait to
try this!

------
deftturtle
Is this something new? Or is it old news? If nothing has changed, it's
unusable for much of the United States. I live in rural Oregon, and it could
be a helpful service. Last I checked, it was restricted and not available.

------
Myrmornis
I wonder what proportion of drivers will be actually heading somewhere, as
opposed to the primary purpose of the journey being to make money from Waze
Carpool.

------
dawhizkid
Didn't know Google used React (according to Chrome).

~~~
jrs95
I think teams are basically allowed to use whatever makes sense for them.
Although there may have been a problem with React's licensing before they
changed it.

Same goes for Facebook. I remember they did something within the last year or
so that used Vue.

~~~
JBReefer
Doesn't the main Timeline use Vue?

~~~
jrs95
I believe its just newsfeed.facebook.com, not the main timeline.

------
nix0n
Is anything like this available currently in Boston?

~~~
tawrahim
You might want to give
[http://www.thetripbuddyapp.com/](http://www.thetripbuddyapp.com/) a try! They
are in the Boston area

~~~
nix0n
I'm having trouble finding the Android version, I found [0] but it's
unreleased and last updated in 2015.

[0]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tawheedrah...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tawheedraheem.tripbuddy)

------
ytechie
For me, I get motion sick if I'm not driving, so I'm really excited about
this. I'll be able to use the toll HOV lanes.

------
pmilla1606
Unrelated to the content but scrolling on that page is basically unusable.
Janky/sluggish/awful.

Chrome 63, OSX 10.12.06

~~~
dingo_bat
Adding my anecdata: super smooth, perfect, fast scrolling on Edge/Win10.

------
r00fus
How does this compare to Scoop, I wonder?

------
cesis
This seems to be California-only, right?

~~~
sreggiani
In Canada we already have
[https://www.poparide.com](https://www.poparide.com). It's more for long
distance trips between 2 cities but it works very well.

------
neves
How does this compare with Bla Bla Car?

~~~
scottydelta
Bla Bla car seems more like long distance travel or sharing rides between
cities and this is more like for daily travel I guess.

------
rs86
Uber valuation did never reflect this risk. This should actually knock a few
billions off of it

------
timvisee
This is awesome I think!

Although, is there a clear reason it is currently only available in the US and
in Israel?

~~~
myth_drannon
Waze was founded in Israel

------
komali2
This is what I thought Uber was gonna be when I first heard about it! How
awesome!

------
vonnik
It's hilarious that this came out the day after Steve Yegge lambasted Google
for failing to innovate. This is a perfect example of Google arriving half way
through the race. Everyone else is on the final lap, they're on the first, and
they think they're running neck and neck.

~~~
danso
Who is on the "final lap" here?

~~~
vonnik
Uber Pool and Lyft Line both came out in 2014. If they're not on the final
lap, they are at least several laps ahead of Waze Carpool.

------
mcone
I wonder what women think of this. Will they feel safe enough to try it?

~~~
akkartik
This is currently the top review for the app:
[https://goo.gl/hxpGuh](https://goo.gl/hxpGuh)

------
JusticeJuice
Side note holy moly this site has bad performance on my poor lil laptop

------
AdmiralAsshat
The number of private tech companies that reinvent the BUS and think they're
geniuses is staggering.

But god forbid we just fund public transportation. We wouldn't want _poor
people_ using our service.

~~~
jobigoud
A few month ago I would have read your comment and thought that bus can't
really compete for the fine grained point to point transportation.

Then I went to Sydney in December. The public transportation system there is
super impressive. You have a location-based app where you can tell you want to
go from point A to point B (from an address, a click on the map, your
favorites), it will instantly provide you with many options, with time,
duration and price, showing you where to take it from.

It seems there are buses every 5 minutes. During the route the app will buzz
you 2 and 1 stop before your actual stop. Oh, and the bus card allow you to
take the light train and the ferry. You can also check your credits directly
in the app, even recharge it I think.

It changed my perspective on how to use public transportation. In Los Angeles
for example I would check which bus/train I should take, download the
timetable to see the frequency and where to stop. In Sydney, I got confident
in a way that I would just stop caring about planning first. Just open the app
and it'll tell you how to go where you want to go.

~~~
intopieces
Hong Kong is this way, too. People gush about the train system in Tokyo (which
I have love for) but the sheer number of fast, frequent, and comfortable ways
to get around in HK edge it out for me.

It seems like every 5 meters there’s a bus stop, and the busses are not old
style clunkers but double deckers like Googles take.

~~~
Terr_
As a former HK resident, a lot of it is because of how impractical it is for
most people to own and operate a private car.

Returning to the US, it's car-culture and lackluster public transport was
jarring.

------
designium
When is available in Canada? :/

------
kkotak
Well, it took a couple of years for the $2B team to do something new,
unfortunately it's going to fall on it's face.

------
ramon
Next move should be Tesla + Waze

------
majortennis
Only in california ...

------
DaniFong
oh this is terrific! well done, knights of waze!

------
feconroses
previous step before Waze + Waymo?

------
rsbartram
I gave up the Waze app for GPS as it drained my iphone battery to quickly. I
switched over to the default maps app on the iphone 7.

~~~
cornholio
Surely having a charging wire in your car and connecting it before a long
drive is not that hard? It's the main way my Samsung phone charges, I usually
go full blast playing internet radio, running Waze etc. and when I arrive my
phone is 100% charged.

I always wondered why there isn't there a charging standard for phone
mounts/cradles just like the old cordless phones where placing it in the
cradle made two metallic leads connect the charging circuit.

~~~
mi100hael
You can get wireless charging car cradles

[https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-qi-wireless-car-
phone...](https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-qi-wireless-car-phone-
charger-mounts/)

~~~
cornholio
An overly complex and finicky solution, alas not supported by the lower end
phones, including mine.

