When ride-hailing apps like Lyft and Uber first appeared, they were called “ride-sharing” services, since people didn’t really know what else to call peer-to-peer unlicensed taxi services. By contrast, the carpooling feature that’s part of Google-owned map and traffic app Waze is more like organized hitchhiking, and now it’s going statewide in California. [More]
waze
Waze Wants To Take Your Food Order Along The Way
By 3.28.17
Waze, the GPS navigation and real-time traffic app owned by Google, is free to download and to use, supporting itself with ads. Now the company is making those ads even more tappable, sending customers right to the ordering app for one of its advertisers, Dunkin’ Donuts. [More]
Google To Take On Uber, Lyft With Major Expansion Of Waze Carpooling Service
By 2.22.17
It seems you can’t throw a rock in the street these days without hitting a ride-sharing vehicle (but don’t do that, seriously). Google is going to make that marketplace even more crowded with a major expansion it has planned for the carpooling function included in its Waze navigation app. [More]
Google Expands Waze Ride-Sharing Test To San Francisco
By 9.30.16
What’s that sound? It’s Google knocking on Uber and Lyft’s doors to tell them it’s come out to play: the technology giant is taking one step further into providing transportation by expanding its pilot ride-sharing program to San Francisco. [More]
Waze Will Now Point You To The Best Parking Spots
By 9.19.16
Google’s traffic app Waze has long been used by commuters looking for the best possible route from point A to point B. Now, some of those drivers can use the app to find the best parking spot at the end of their trip. [More]
Google Launching Actual Ride-Sharing Pilot To Compete With Uber, Lyft
By 8.31.16
When Uber was new, it may have claimed to be a ride-sharing service, but these days it’s a high-tech, glorified, unlicensed taxi app. So Google’s planning to start competing against it in San Francisco, with… an actual ride-sharing service. [More]
Waze Taking On Uber, Lyft In San Francisco With Carpool Service
By 5.16.16
Earlier this year, Google’s traffic app Waze joined forces with Lyft, allowing the ride-hailing company to use its navigation technology in an attempt to get riders to their destinations in the fastest manner possible. Now, the tech company is ready to take on the on-demand ride industry all by itself, launching a carpooling service in San Francisco. [More]
Waze Wants To Tell You When You’re Over The Speed Limit
By 3.30.16
One feature of the Google-owned navigation app Waze that I hear is very useful is its sometimes-controversial crowdsourced police alerts, which warn users when there’s a speed trap ahead. Now the app is adding a feature which your GPS from the last decade may have had: it will warn you when you’re over the speed limit. [More]
Motorists Love Waze; People Who Live On Side Streets Not So Much
By 2.17.16
The app Waze, which Google acquired back in 2013, is a navigational aid that’s sometimes useful, and sometimes leads to a car full of Consumerist editors driving in circles for a solid twenty minutes. You don’t have to use the app to be annoyed with it, though: some people are annoyed that the app sends people through their neighborhoods in the name of finding the fastest and most efficient route. [More]
Lyft Partners With Waze In Effort To Be Faster, More Efficient Than The Competition
By 1.26.16
What’s a ride-hailing company to do when it’s got a rival or two cruising around town trying to pick up the same customers it wants? It has to have a leg up on the competition. Getting passengers to their destinations quicker than other services is one way to beat out others, which is why Lyft is partnering with Google’s traffic app Waze. [More]
Waze Accused Of Stealing Map Data From Competing Traffic App
By 9.3.15
How do you catch someone who you think is stealing your map data? Just put locations on the map that don’t exist, and then look for those locations to show up on the alleged thief’s maps. That’s what traffic-alerting app PhantomAlert did when it believed that competitor Waze was stealing its location database. Now PhantomAlert is suing Waze, which has since been purchased by Google. [More]
Police Ask Waze To Remove Speed Trap Alerts To Protect Cops
By 1.26.15
The navigation and traffic app Waze is sometimes very helpful to help motorists avoid snarled traffic, construction, and road hazards. One of its features has some police officers worried, though. They worry that the feature that allows Waze users to alert each other to speed traps could endanger the lives of police officers. [More]
Smartphone Traffic Apps: Are You Gambling With Your Commute?
By 1.30.14
Gone are the days of simple radio traffic reports and plotting out your travel route before hitting the road. Today, commuters use a variety of smartphone apps designed to show real-time traffic and travel times. But is banking on an app to give you the fastest route really effective? [More]
FTC To Google: Hang On A Minute While We Investigate This Waze Deal
By 6.24.13
Google might want to start trying to pour the bubbly it poured over its $1.1 billion acquisition of social mapping company Waze back into the bottle, at least until the Federal Trade Commission is done with its antitrust review of the deal. The company confirmed that it’s been contacted by antitrust lawyers from the FTC, which isn’t a surprise. You take one huge company and have it buy up another smaller one, and the FTC will be there. [More]
Google Scoops Up Online Mapping Service Waze Just Like Everyone Expected
By 6.11.13
Despite the fact that online mapping service Waze has been all up in the news lately for flirting with several suitors, the announcement that Google has emerged triumphant after a short courtship is barely a surprise. It’s like the new girl at school being polite and talking to the various guys trying to make a great first impression, until the quarterback walks in and everyone knows it’s all over. Google just always seems to get the girl. [More]
