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Google Targets Uber With New Waze Carpool Service- Valutrics

 

The tech giant announced it is expanding Waze Carpool testing in San Francisco.

 The tech giant announced it is expanding Waze Carpool testing in San Francisco.

Google-owned Waze plans to expand testing of its Waze Carpool service to all of San Francisco this fall, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Waze Carpool will start testing in San Francisco and expand from there if successful, according to the WSJ report.

Waze Carpool began a limited test with some companies in parts of the Bay Area in May. The service pairs you with a driver headed in the same direction. The service is only on during rush hour, but it’s similar to carpooling features offered by Uber and Lyft.

However, Waze’s service only pays for drivers’ gas. Waze doesn’t make any money. Uber Pool and Lyft Line let you share rides with other Uber or Lyft customers.

While Waze Carpool isn’t a direct competitor to Uber or Lyft, there’s always the potential that it could steal riders from the two if the service takes off.

On Monday, Uber announced that David Drummond, an executive at Google’s parent company Alphabet, has left the Uber board due to increased competition between Alphabet and Uber. Like Uber, Alphabet is exploring ride-hailing services powered by a fleet of self-driving cars.

A Google spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

This story first appeared on Business Insider.