Google's ride-sharing platform is expanding beyond the Bay Area (Engadget)

In other Uber news, see Inside Uber’s Aggressive, Unrestrained Workplace Culture (NYT)

"After successful tests of its casual carpool service in the Bay Area and Tel Aviv, Alphabet's combination navigation app and ride-sharing platform Waze is ready to expand beyond its first two test markets. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, the Waze Rider companion app will launch new service in "several US cities" as well as Latin America over the next few months.

While Waze's carpool service is likely to take a chunk of Uber's business (which Alphabet is also invested in through it's venture capital arm Google Ventures), the Waze approach to ride-sharing is a little more casual. As Waze CEO Noam Bardin told the Wall Street Journal, "can we get the average person on his way to work to pick someone up and drop them off once in a while? That's the biggest challenge.""

Google's ride-sharing platform is expanding beyond the Bay Area