Waze is a popular navigation and crowd-sourced police evasion tool, but most people probably don’t realize that the app has had a carpool arm for the past six years. Waze’s business has expanded to such an extent recently that the Google organization’s carpool arm isn’t as popular as it once was. As a result, the company will stop the service to focus on its other products.
Waze’s carpool services were available to people in Brazil, Israel, Mexico, and the United States. Although it closes the feature in those countries, users can still use the app for traffic information and navigation aids. Waze’s data shows that people are driving up to 15% more than before the pandemic, so there’s still plenty of potential for the company’s navigation and infotainment app.
A Waze spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company wants to focus on traffic and decongesting cities. Waze also focuses on reducing the cost of various mobility solutions and improving security and availability.
When it started, Waze’s carpooling feature offered a service that didn’t exist, but that quickly changed when Uber and Lyft showed up. Then, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic closed offices and led to a significant shift in how and where people worked, reducing their reliance on taxis, ridesharing and carpool services. People are now driving and commuting again, and Uber, Lyft and others have shown that at least part of the market is moving in the opposite direction.