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!
Waze Carpool
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Re: Waze Carpool
#22I 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.
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.
Conan even visited their office. There is a YouTube video.
Re: Waze Carpool
#23But 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.
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.
And this practice has been going on informally since the 70's when the first HOV lanes were opened. I have used it before and although the first few rides might feel awkward, you get used to it quickly and it's a great improvement over driving in traffic. It might have been easier to start here though because almost everyone who uses it on the route I take is going to the Pentagon, so the drivers and riders are fairly homogenous.
Re: Waze Carpool
#24Why 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.
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.
Re: Waze Carpool
#25I wonder what women think of this. Will they feel safe enough to try it?
Re: Waze Carpool
#26I 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.
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.
Re: Waze Carpool
#27Why 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.
Re: Waze Carpool
#28I 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 mix…
> 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…
>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.
Re: Waze Carpool
#29The 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/chatbo…
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.
If it was a bot, would you be mad?
Re: Waze Carpool
#30The 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/chatbo…
100% agree. I would never trust Google for any customer / retail effort.