Don't want to use Uber? Waze Carpool expands to other cities.
Google-owned Waze wants to dominate the ride-hailing market. Thanks to the allegations of sexual harassment rocking top competitor Uber, it may actually stand a chance.
With timing that may or may not be coincidental, Chief Wazer Noam Bardin announced that his company plans to radically expand its carpool service, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Initially launched in the U.S. last year, Waze Carpool in many ways functions similar to Uber: it matches drivers with riders and compensates those behind the wheel.
According to Bardin, over the next several months the service will expand beyond San Francisco and Israel to several currently unnamed U.S. cities, as well as parts of Latin America. Unlike Uber, Waze charges riders a flat $.54 per-mile fee and doesn't aim to replace taxis. Instead, the company relies on people already driving somewhere being willing to pick up and drop off a stranger along the way.
“Can we get the average person on his way to work to pick someone up and drop them off once in a while?" Bardin asked the paper. "That’s the biggest challenge.”
Notably, Bardin doesn't mention the challenge of attracting riders away from his competition — perhaps the on-again, off-again #DeleteUber movement gave him cause for optimism.
Uber has faced plenty of backlash in the past for a variety of reasons and has mostly always bounced back, but the public's response to a former employee's allegations has been fierce and seems to have elicited a refreshing level of panic from Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
Bardin has certainly noticed this, and may be counting on customer aversion to Uber's alleged toxic workplace to drive customers into Waze's carpooling arms. If so, today's announced expansion couldn't be better timed.
Even with that helpful nudge, however, he has his work cut out for him. Of the approximately 150,000 drivers signed up for Waze Carpool, only a small number have actually given rides. Getting that percentage up will be vital to the expansion's success.
After all, even commuters turned off by Uber's alleged misconduct still have to get to work on time. For Waze Carpool, simply being the "not Uber" option isn't enough — although it's a pretty good start.
