Waze Traffic App Expansion: Carpool Service Coming To More U.S. Cities, Latin America

Waze Carpool, the car and riding sharing service from the navigation provider, hinted it was looking into expanding earlier this month. Now, we’ve got an idea about where you’ll soon be able to carpool at.

The carpool service will expand into Latin America and several unnamed U.S. cities within the next few months, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move comes after Waze Carpool’s successful rollout late last year in the San Francisco Bay region.

The ride sharing market has become increasingly competitive within the past few years thanks to market leaders Uber and Lyft, but Waze’s carpool service has attempted to separate itself by doing something different. While ride sharing services function similarly to a traditional taxi, Waze Carpool pairs up riders with drivers who already plan to head to the same direction.

Commuters and employees traveling to work are a major focus for the service and an example of the type of users they want to target. During Waze’s rollout throughout the greater San Francisco Bay area, the company announced partnerships with organizations like the Kaiser Permanente network of regional hospitals and the University of California-San Francisco to encourage employees to use the service.

The announced move isn’t the first international expansion from Waze Carpool, though it’s one of the largest throughout the service’s gradual rollout. As the Wall Street Journal notes, Waze Carpool originally launched in Tel Aviv in 2015.

But the expansion also represents a notable shift in the ride sharing market for Google, which owns Waze. Google has various transit and automotive investments and programs, but hasn’t heavily worked in the ride sharing space outside of investing $258 million into Uber back in 2013. With Waze’s gradual international expansion, Google looks to go into more direct competition with companies like Uber.