Google-owned mapping company Waze is launching a ride-sharing pilot in several Israeli cities.... [+]
Waze, a Google-owned turn-by-turn navigation app that already directs tens of millions of users around traffic jams, will now guide some drivers toward a new feature: a paying passenger to carpool with on the way to or from work.
The Israeli-founded app company, which Google bought in 2013 for $1 billion, has developed a carpooling service called RideWith and is testing it in Tel Aviv starting this week, Google said.
Beyond its self-driving car program, Google has been rumored to be exploring other transportation businesses, especially those that resemble Uber and Lyft, where casual drivers ferry around paying passengers. In February, Bloomberg reported that Google was developing a ride-hailing app similar to Uber and testing it with employees. Google was an early investor in Uber through its Google Ventures arm, and Google's chief legal officer David Drummond still sits on Uber's board, though moves like RideWith could increase concerns of a conflict of interest.
RideWith is currently far from Uber's or Lyft's business model. Rides are scheduled hours before pickup, not on-demand. Drivers are only paid enough to cover the expenses of a car, and they are limited to two rides a day starting from either their home neighborhood or their workplace, which the app checks based on their email addresses, according to Haaretz. Unlike Uber and Lyft drivers, many of whom have quit their jobs to do ride-hailing work, RideWith's drivers won't be able to collect a profit.
But it does have some similarities to Uber and Lyft. Google will take a 15% cut of the transaction, which is paid through the app, and the app calculates matches based on closest fit -- technologies that would also be useful later in a more commercial version.
For now, though, RideWith's strict limits will help it avoid upsetting regulators who say that Uber and others like it are selling rides without proper licensing. Israel's taxi drivers have protested against UberX, and Uber has also suspended operations for casual-driver UberPOP in countries like France after authorities arrested local executives.
The RideWith app is available to Android users in Tel Aviv, Ra'anana and Herzliya, three cities where many Israeli tech workers live or work, Haaretz said. Uber's black-car professional service has been in Israel since last September, and the company also operates UberX, which allows non-licensed casual drivers to drive around paying passengers, even though local regulators say it is operating illegally. GetTaxi, an Israeli black-car service, also operates in the country.
In a statement, Google played down the scope of the service."We are conducting a small, private beta test in Tel Aviv for a carpool concept," said spokeswoman Julie Mossler. "Waze regularly experiments with new ideas in our backyard, and we have nothing specific to announce at this time." An Uber spokesperson did not immediately have a comment on the service.
