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Waze Navigation App Launches Carpool Pilot Program with Strict Requirements

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Carpoolers in San Francisco can now use Waze’s newest pilot program

The Waze navigation app is known for offering drivers crowd-sourced data that alerts people to road hazards, closures, speed traps, and detours—and soon, it will have a brand-new feature. This navigation app is starting a pilot program to match up daily commuters for carpools.

Before you get excited though, you need to learn about the requirements for the pilot. Why, you ask? Because they are ridiculously strict.


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To be elgible for the Waze car-pooling pilot program, you have to work on the West Coast—in San Francisco to be exact. You also have to work for one of Waze’s select corporate launch partners, which include the likes of the University of California San Francisco, Adobe, and Walmart Global eCommerce.

According to an interview from SF Gate, these businesses were mostly chosen based on their proximity to Google’s offices.

If you happen to fit these criteria, the program is relatively easy to use. You don’t even have to get an additional app to the standard Waze app.


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This isn’t the first time Waze has launched a carpooling service. Last year, it launched RideWith in Israel. This program uses Waze’s navigational information to identify the best home-to-work routes that allow the use to carpool—which is exactly what the app’s new San Francisco program will do.

The app isn’t paying Waze drivers a salary, though. Instead, riders will be charged a small fee to cover fuel. In total, it will amount to about 54 cents per mile.

With a wide range of carpooling app competition already rooted in the San Francisco market, including services like Carma and Scoop, it will be interesting to see how Waze does in this new market.

News Source: SF Gate