Friday, May 19, 2017

Google’s Waze Is Doing More Than Just Traffic Maps - Bloomberg

From a Waze Carpool overview

"Waze hasn’t finalized its payment structure but says it won’t deliver drivers more than 54¢ per mile in the U.S., meaning they won’t have to declare it as income. A recent Waze Carpool ride from San Francisco to Mountain View (about 38 miles) cost $8.60, about one-fifth of a comparable Uber trip. “We have some real market forces that are going to make sure there’s no gouging,” Eisnor says, meaning there won’t be any Uber-style surge pricing.

Waze is betting this more-casual structure will help it avoid the regulatory issues Uber has faced. On May 11, an advisory panel to the European Union’s high court recommended that the court deem Uber a transport service instead of a software company, which would subject it to much more stringent regulations. Waze Carpool may have to worry about similar issues in the future, though; Eisnor says the company hopes to eventually take a cut of rides set up using the app, and predicts that money from rides will overtake advertising to become Waze’s biggest source of revenue."
Google’s Waze Is Doing More Than Just Traffic Maps - Bloomberg

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