22 ms·

Waze Carpool

• JumpCrisscross 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    > 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 9y ago
      >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.
      • encoderer 9y ago
        You mean network effects? Because that’s why having more engineers here leads to higher pay and more interesting work opportunities.
        • freehunter 9y ago
          Exactly. There are lots of great reasons to justify it. Higher wages offset the cost of living (which can't be caused by the rising wages, right?) and has the side effect of locking out anyone who can't or won't work for a tech company, driving them from the homes they can no longer afford, ensuring that the next person who moves in there will be just like me. Personally I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Because anywhere else there are other kinds of people, doing other kinds of things and living other kinds of lives. Can't have that, it would bring down my paycheck. Gotta have that network effect, and of course by network effect, I mean people who are just like me.
          • encoderer 9y ago
            I think you’re being too cynical. I grew up in Ohio. Mostly I knew white people who also were born there and mostly knew white people themselves. This is 180* from the Bay Area. Sure, the enormous tech economy makes for a bit of an industrial monoculture. But if you start talking to people about things other than what they do for a living you’ll hear a lot of interesting stories.
            • freehunter 9y ago
              I am being too cynical, you're right. I'm pushing into the hyperbole territory to try to make my point as clear as possible. Diversity isn't how many black people you know. And it's not a perfect line of "SV is awful, everywhere else is better". Some places around the country are better for your soul than others, and the best way to experience life is by visiting places, spending time in places where people live drastically different lives than you do. Bonus points if you're a minority (a rich person living in a poor town, a poor person living in a rich town, black living in a white area, white living in a black area, conservative living in a liberal area, you get the idea). Point is, congregating everyone of a type in one area leads to a monoculture which is dangerous. Race doesn't matter nearly as much as economic class, and making well-paying tech jobs centralized in one area for really no good reason does very little to help. If people going to SV are so willing to move to somewhere new for work, does it really all have to be the exact same place? With a ton of other people just like them?
  • jsadow 9y ago
    One of the things we've found most exciting about matching carpoolers together is the organic way in which people from totally different backgrounds (genders, ethnicities, nationalities, professions) get paired up on a simple ride to work. After all, carpooling, when done right, really starts with just basic geography - who is near you, and who is not. We've seen incredible stories of the people we're connecting - from job advice to new tennis partners -- and even consolation over lost loved ones. One of the beautiful things of that type of community (that we think we have with Scoop) is it's an unexpected forcing function to look outside your normal bubble - which seems harder and harder to come by these days.
• dawhizkid 9y ago
  Didn't know Google used React (according to Chrome).
  • jrs95 9y ago
    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 9y ago
      Doesn't the main Timeline use Vue?
      • jrs95 9y ago
        I believe its just newsfeed.facebook.com, not the main timeline.
  • kevinSuttle 9y ago
    Unfortunately, it's not a good showcase for React. This simple site is super janky (at least on my machine).
• daburninatorrr 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    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 9y ago
      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 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    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 9y ago
      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 9y ago
        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.
    • lucb1e 9y ago
      > BlaBlaCar which basicly has a monopoly when it comes to carpooling here Wait, BlaBlaCar is actually a brand and not a placeholder for "some car[pooling] company"? Because blabla is how we write "blah blah" in dutch (n.b. "bla bla" also works in dutch). Edit: Ok so it's a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blablacar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blablacar
  • empath75 9y ago
    It'll 100% get used in DC to get around the $30 tolls on 66. They already have "sluglines" where people pick up strangers so they can drive on the hov lane.
• dawhizkid 9y ago
  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.
  • lg 9y ago
    I had problems with my google home mini controlling my android tv and went to the help page for it. A chatbox appeared and for about an hour a support agent talked me through various things to try (the only thing that worked was factory data reset on the TV). Pretty sure it was not a bot, unless they've gotten really good.
    • saalweachter 9y ago
      If it was a bot, would you be mad?
      • lg 9y ago
        no, I'd be pretty impressed.
  • mabbo 9y ago
    When you put it that way, I start to think Amazon should get into this business. I'm sure everyone has one bad customer experience incident with them, yes, but overall they're one of the highest rated for customer experience. Then Amazon would say "Hey, while you're on your way there, mind taking a few packages with you?"
    • fnbr 9y ago
      Yup. I've had a number of bad experiences (packages not arriving, wrong thing delivered, etc), but every time, Amazon has made it right. They consistently produce a great customer experience.
• scandox 9y ago
  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.
  • EA 9y ago
    A major reason it is very popular in Israel is because Waze was founded in Israel. They also got started with VC from Israeli companies.
    • chrisper 9y ago
      Conan even visited their office. There is a YouTube video.
  • gcb0 9y ago
    oh and the ads! waze in Israel shows ads on the screen every time your speed is close to stopped, and then slide them up when you start moving. it's awful. irresponsible. and gave me lots of anxiety every single time. it's probably fine for people that just want traffic info, but for actual gps guidance usage it is hell.
    • ben1040 9y ago
      I see that here in the US as well. Ads for fast food restaurants or movies, quite often. Interacting with the ad would navigate you to the nearest restaurant, or theatre playing that film.
    • Cthulhu_ 9y ago
      Can't you just give them money to get rid of that? I mean they have to make money somehow.
      • gcb0 9y ago
• noer 9y ago
  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.
• tabeth 9y ago
  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.
  • ihsw2 9y ago
    Google Maps already provides this but with public transit -- real-time notifications of when your bus/train is departing for going home/work. Granted that you have to explicitly set home/work addresses and what your regular departure time ranges (eg: go to work between 7-8am and go home between 5-6pm). Tbh this sounds exactly like what you're describing but with public car-pooling substituted for public transit.
  • JumpCrisscross 9y ago
    https://www.takescoop.com https://www.takescoop.com
  • Tiktaalik 9y ago
    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 9y ago
      > 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.
• BatFastard 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    Or the exact opposite so that reasonable discourse and free exchange of opinions can break out.
• mcone 9y ago
  I wonder what women think of this. Will they feel safe enough to try it?
  • akkartik 9y ago
    This is currently the top review for the app: https://goo.gl/hxpGuh https://goo.gl/hxpGuh
• cesis 9y ago
  This seems to be California-only, right?
  • smn1234 9y ago
    & Texas, and Israel
  • sreggiani 9y ago
    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.
• NotSammyHagar 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    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 9y ago
      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 9y ago
        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 9y ago
          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).
• foxhop 9y ago
  OMG this is what the sharing economy is about, way to go Waze! I can't wait to try this!
• designium 9y ago
  When is available in Canada? :/
• mshenfield 9y ago
  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.
• patelbhavesh 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    I think you're missing Scoop.
    • jsadow 9y ago
      Thanks for the shout joncrane :)
      • patelbhavesh 9y ago
        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.
      • joncrane 9y ago
        haha if you send me a t-shirt, I will wear it proudly!
  • lucb1e 9y ago
    Offtopic: that first sentence sounds very weird, I think your syntax got messed up. Use two enters to get a blank line in between. You can't do something on the next line (this is not real markdown). See: https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc
  • huangc10 9y ago
• smn1234 9y ago
  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
• ruairidhwm 9y ago
  Looks just like BlaBlaCar. Nice.
  • tawrahim 9y ago
    I spent about 3 months in Europe and I was totally amazed with the efficiency of BlaBlaCar! That actually ended up inspiring me to work on http://www.thetripbuddyapp.com/ http://www.thetripbuddyapp.com/ - To be honest I wished transportation in the US was as efficient as Europe.
  • flodevelennes 9y ago
    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 9y ago
      Hey Ah, very interesting. I didn't know that! Poparide looks like a good solution too.
• nix0n 9y ago
  Is anything like this available currently in Boston?
  • tawrahim 9y ago
    You might want to give http://www.thetripbuddyapp.com/ http://www.thetripbuddyapp.com/ a try! They are in the Boston area
    • cowsandmilk 9y ago
      not sure if you're involved with this app, but I've tried 10 different selfies from multiple locations and the app doesn't accept any of them as a profile photo. Whatever algorithm you're using for determining if photos are acceptable does not work at all.
    • nix0n 9y ago
      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.tawheedraheem.tripbuddy https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tawheedrah...
• jessriedel 9y ago
  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.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  • flodevelennes 9y ago
    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.
• pmilla1606 9y ago
  Unrelated to the content but scrolling on that page is basically unusable. Janky/sluggish/awful. Chrome 63, OSX 10.12.06
  • dingo_bat 9y ago
    Adding my anecdata: super smooth, perfect, fast scrolling on Edge/Win10.
  • fenwick67 9y ago
    Same here, Chrome 36 on Windows, although IE is just as bad. I think they tried to tween too much stuff at once.
• vonnik 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    Who is on the "final lap" here?
    • vonnik 9y ago
      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.
  • lern_too_spel 9y ago
    I agree with Yegge, but this launched in June, not the day after Yegge's blog post.
• edward 9y ago
  "Waze Carpool is available in the US (California, Texas) and Israel."
• feconroses 9y ago
  previous step before Waze + Waymo?
• rsbartram 9y ago
  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.
  • dingo_bat 9y ago
    It's amazing how far reaching the effects of Apple's obsession with thin phones are.
  • cornholio 9y ago
    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 9y ago
      You can get wireless charging car cradles https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-qi-wireless-car-phone-charger-mounts/ https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-qi-wireless-car-phone...
      • cornholio 9y ago
        An overly complex and finicky solution, alas not supported by the lower end phones, including mine.
• Singletoned 9y ago
  This website took my processor to 60% in Firefox.
  • leviathant 9y ago
    This website had no noticeable effect on my processor in Firefox.
• AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
  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.
  • kristopolous 9y ago
    Maybe cities should start running a "luxury service" tier along the bus lines that charges 3x the fare, has cushioned seats, etc. Need a smart phone to request a stop. Make it once an hour or so and a sleek black and silver exclusive color. Don't even call it a bus, rebrand it as the stress-free shuttle and get a few celebrities to be "spotted" on them. You may laugh but this would probably be a hit.
    • scarmig 9y ago
      I'd pay at least 2x the Muni fare if they would guarantee I wouldn't be mugged or spat on by a mentally disturbed homeless person.
      • deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      • mulletbum 9y ago
        If the bus was just built with a compartment for just you instead of everyone clumped together, I would pay a lot more.
        • kristopolous 9y ago
          Are you talking about the small rooms inside of trains you see in Black and White movies?
          • ableal 9y ago
            Probably not, those compartments were generally shared by strangers, unless they were sleeper cabins. There were different price classes, though.
• lerie82 9y ago
  The load time on that page is horrendous, or is it just me? It completely locked up my Chromebook, I couldn't even load the page completely. This happened twice in a row.
• deftturtle 9y ago
  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.
• timvisee 9y ago
  This is awesome I think! Although, is there a clear reason it is currently only available in the US and in Israel?
  • myth_drannon 9y ago
    Waze was founded in Israel
• Newtopian 9y ago
  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-1.211740 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/province-stops-allo-stop-1.211...). 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 9y ago
    In British Columbia, I'm sure the taxi lobby is already lining the pockets of politicians to prevent Waze Carpool from happening.
  • cornholio 9y ago
    >The board found the Montreal-based company was illegally competing with the Voyageur, Greyhound and Trentway bus companies. >Felix D'Mello is with the Ontario Highway Transport Board, which controls passenger transportation in the province. He says because money is exchanged, it's a public transportation service, and that breaks the rules. What a revolting crock of crap - politicians outright protecting established business interests. I guess in such locations Google can still implement a free service, and let users settle the price themselves, it's suboptimal but regulators can't outright kill it, unlike Uber.
• ytechie 9y ago
  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.
• virgilp 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    Blablacar exists, and is global. It's pretty common in the Netherlands.
    • virgilp 9y ago
      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.
• ramon 9y ago
  Next move should be Tesla + Waze
• majortennis 9y ago
  Only in california ...
• wkoszek 9y ago
  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.
  • 111_1_111 9y ago
    Tech companies can't unilaterally create public transportation.
  • toephu2 9y ago
    Or Asia, or Canada, or basically anywhere outside the United States..
  • dingdongding 9y ago
    Public transportation is not perfect in every part of the world. That's the reason we have Uber/Lyft/Taxis and carpooling apps
• twostorytower 9y ago
  It's ironic to me that this is basically what Lyft started as (Zimride).
• dsnuh 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    > 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.
• jimnotgym 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    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.
• avip 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    Let's hope it doesn't end up as Foursquare/Swarm.
• komali2 9y ago
  This is what I thought Uber was gonna be when I first heard about it! How awesome!
• neves 9y ago
  How does this compare with Bla Bla Car?
  • scottydelta 9y ago
    Bla Bla car seems more like long distance travel or sharing rides between cities and this is more like for daily travel I guess.
• baumant 9y ago
  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
• udioron 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    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.
  • golemiprague 9y ago
    Modiin is a middle class suburb, Israel got less weirdos than America and early adopters are usually nicer. I am not sure it is going to work in other places and with a different mix of population.
  • JimboOmega 9y ago
    Waze Carpool has existed for some time in the United States too. I have tried to use it plenty, I have only had it match me successfully once though. Which was amazing when it worked.
• gricardo99 9y ago
  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
• r00fus 9y ago
  How does this compare to Scoop, I wonder?
• bob_theslob646 9y ago
  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 9y ago
    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.
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• Myrmornis 9y ago
  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.
• kaseyb002 9y ago
  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
• matthew349hall 9y ago
  This is so much of a better idea than Uber.
• tytso 9y ago
  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.
  • peterjlee 9y ago
    This isn't something new. Scoop is already doing this and Lyft had carpool for a while before they shut it down.
    • tytso 9y ago
      The service certainly isn't new. But Scoop, Lyft, and Waze all have different monetization models. Waze is ad-funded, plus its traffic data provides value to Google Maps. Lyft takes a cut of the money paid to the drivers. Scoop is apparently getting funded by the employers and office parks where they are providing service. These are all different models, and the fact that Lyft shut down their carpool service indicates that it's not a good fit for their business model.
    • tedmiston 9y ago
      Did they shutdown Lyft Line or are you talking about something else?
  • jsadow 9y ago
    This point is dead-on and the key distinction between ridesharing (or really, ride-hailing) and carpooling. With Scoop, for example, all the people who Driver are just everyday folks. They're commuters like you, me, and the Riders they get matched up with. The economic incentives are like a bonus - where the real value is the improved time in the car and the time savings from the carpool lane (where applicable). And of course, other benefits around sustainability and parking that really impact and motivate some commuters.
• jsadow 9y ago
  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-million-in-financing-scoop-wants-to-make-carpooling-mainstream/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/11/08/with-36-..., 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 9y ago
    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-6e8c4aec63e https://blog.takescoop.com/making-scoop-accessible-for-all-6... 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-in-san-mateo-county-program-starting-this-summer-fe41456d3b14 https://blog.takescoop.com/scoop-partners-with-the-carpool-i... 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
• rs86 9y ago
  Uber valuation did never reflect this risk. This should actually knock a few billions off of it
• JusticeJuice 9y ago
  Side note holy moly this site has bad performance on my poor lil laptop
• natch 9y ago
  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...
• kkotak 9y ago
  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.
• YTGRK 9y ago
  https://youtu.be/I2l8xkjTUh4 https://youtu.be/I2l8xkjTUh4
• DaniFong 9y ago
  oh this is terrific! well done, knights of waze!
• commuter 9y ago
  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.
• illuminea 9y ago
  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.