Google’s Waze navigation app is losing one of its more unique features, as Waze Carpool has officially hit the chopping block and will be shut down starting next month.
Waze announced today through The Verge that it would shut down Waze Carpool starting in September. The service is shutting down after six years of service.
Waze Carpool was meant to allow users of the app save on fuel costs by carpooling with other drivers in the area for a small fee. Unlike carpool offerings from Lyft and Uber, Waze’s option was meant to connect drivers who had similar commutes and, ultimately, to fill empty seats in a car and lessen the number of vehicles on the road during busy commute times. Waze Carpool has been available as a standalone app for a few years now.
When it launched, Carpool was only available in the San Francisco Bay area, but later launched in the rest of the United States, Brazil, and Israel.
Why is Carpool being shut down? Waze explains that COVID, and the impact it has had on commutes and where people work, was the biggest point of consideration. With more and more workers able to work from home full-time, or even having more flexible schedules on when they do come into the office, Waze doesn’t have the constant and predictable stream of riders needed to make this sort of service viable.
But that doesn’t mean Waze is throwing away the idea of carpooling altogether, at least from the sound of it. In a statement, Waze says:
While Waze was predominantly a commuting app pre-COVID, today the proportion of errands and travel drives have surpassed commutes. This means we have an opportunity to find even more impactful ways to bring together a global community to share real-time insights and help each other outsmart traffic — this is what has always made Waze truly special. We are proud of what we accomplished through Waze Carpool, and are grateful to the Carpool community for sharing drives and working together to take cars off the road
Waze Carpool will start to shut down in September 2022, and will phase out after that date.
More on Waze:
- Waze appears to be struggling with performance issues on Android Auto and CarPlay
- Waze partners with Tour de France as the ‘Official Traffic Manager’
- Use Waze to find the cheapest gas prices near you – Here’s how
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