Fewer other people moving due to the COVID-19 pandemic means fewer people need to share the car. That’s why Google-owned Waze has to shut down its six-year-old Carpool app that connects passengers and drivers going in the same direction, The Verge reported. The company will begin shutting down the feature in September in the U. S. USA, Brazil and Israel.
Waze’s Carpool app is commonly popular with travelers: the service will offer a spouse program for businesses to only offer as a transportation option for workers. Waze Carpool drivers (up to 54 cents per mile) will be reimbursed to choose passengers who lived on their way to work. Instead of a way to make extra money, Carpool max drivers saw it as a way to save gas.
“While Waze was primarily a pre-COVID transportation app, today the ratio of travel to travel has surpassed travel,” Waze said in The Verge. Enable browser notifications to get the latest alerts from Engadget. You can turn off notifications at any time in the settings menu. Not nowActivatedActivatedActivatedActivated
The rise of telecommuting and protective measures during the pandemic have made carpooling much less popular. While more people are returning to the workplace this year, interest in carpooling and ridership on public transportation has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, the Washington Post noted. More and more people have mixed work schedules or only come to the workplace for meetings or other events, making it less convenient to coordinate rideshares or rideshares. As a result, more and more people drive alone to get to their jobs.