The Covid-19 pandemic radically changed our lives at the beginning of 2020. Some of those changes, fortunately, have been temporary and we have returned to our usual habits when the situation has improved a little. But there are things that have changed forever and will never be the same again. For example, now we think a little more before spending a few hours in a closed place with strangers. And this usual reticence has been taken ahead of one of the functions of the Waze driving application , which consisted of the possibility of carpooling with other users.
In some countries, Waze offered a service similar to the one that we can find in BlaBlacar in Spain . Users who wanted to could find partners to share a car, which meant significant economic savings and also an improvement for the environment.
However, the company has expressed in a statement echoed by The Verge that this carpooling function was basically a pre-pandemic function. But now everything has changed. It’s not just the fact that many people are afraid of spending too much time in a vehicle with strangers. There is also the fact that since the pandemic began , the number of people who telecommute has increased , and therefore they no longer need a companion in the car to get to their jobs. These changes have made the company decide to focus on other functions of the application and leave carpooling aside.
WHAT IS CARPOOLING IN WAZE
If you wonder what carpooling in Waze is, the answer is that it is basically sharing a car with other people to go to the same place. What we have done all our lives with friends, family or co-workers but with the help of the app to find partners.
If you had never heard of Waze having this option, it is probably because it has never been available in Spain. It was a service that was limited to the United States, Brazil, and Israel . Everything made us think that over the years it would spread and reach new markets, but the pandemic came to change everything and finally we will never get to see it in these parts.
The Waze carpooling operation was practically identical to what we can find in Blablacar. Travelers who have free seats in their car can place an advertisement to count the journey they make daily and the number of seats they have available. And those people who are interested in making the trip get in touch with the people who drive.
Although disguised as concern for the health of its users, it seems that the decision to close the carpooling service has a mainly economic motivation .
And it is that now that all the restrictions to contain the coronavirus have practically disappeared, it does not seem to make much sense that a car sharing tool be eliminated. But if, between the fear of some users and the rise of teleworking , the use of it has decreased considerably , it is likely that Google has decided that it is not worth keeping it available.
The creators of this tool always insisted that their intention had never been to earn money from it. But the reality is that maintaining new features in an application involves maintenance and support work . And if the number of users is constantly declining, it is easy for them to conclude that it is not worth the effort for a service that is no longer so popular.