Google launches real carpooling, which will destroy professional taxi drivers (22 rubles per kilometer)

Carpooling will significantly reduce the number of cars on the roads. Photo: NUI Galway Car Share / Aengus McMahon The

world leader in the development of unmanned vehicles - Google - is almost ready to bring to the market cars that will change the world forever. Our habits, lifestyle, appearance of cities - all this will change when robocar will replace human drivers.

Before this happens, there are several important steps to be taken. First of all, unmanned vehicles will appear on routes with fixed points of landing and disembarking, as was done recently in Singapore . Then the number of landing points will gradually increase. In any case, it is with a taxi park that a victorious procession of robotic cars across the planet will begin.

Google believes that you can immediately take a second step. Taxis, in principle, are not needed if you correctly implement the information system of carpooling, that is, car sharing. Then the profession of a taxi driver will disappear as unnecessary even earlier than unmanned vehicles appear.

And finally, Google has taken this important step. Today it became known that Google launches its own carping service. For now, he will only work in San Francisco and so far with live drivers. But this is only the beginning - the first touch to the picture of a bright future, which is becoming more and more real.

The plans of Google became known to the Wall Street Journal, the information obtained from reliable sources.

It is reported that Google launched a pilot carpooling test Waze Carpool near its headquarters in California in May 2016 . During the test, the Waze mobile app was used . The vehicles were available for 25,000 passengers - employees of Google, Adobe and Wal-Mart, drove them home and work. As driversanyone could register .

During the test, a real service was simulated, which is planned to be opened in the fall for all residents of San Francisco.

Waze carpool


Waze - the largest navigation application supported on a volunteer basis. The source code is published under the free GNU GPL license. This is a free program that monitors the situation on the roads in real time, paves the best routes, shows the traffic police road cameras , inspectors' posts, etc. Maps in Waze are 100% created by the users themselves. The whole program works on the principle of crowdsourcing, information about traffic jams, traffic police posts, etc., drivers themselves add to it.

Google bought the Israeli company Waze in 2013 for $ 1.1 billion - and now it has found useful use for this program.

Obviously, the free Waze program will be applied after the official launch of Google Taxi in San Francisco. Unlike the proprietary programs Uber, Lyft and others, the Waze program is designed to unite passengers traveling in the same direction. According to Google, this will significantly reduce the tariffs for taxis - so much so that it will be unprofitable for professional taxi drivers to work . Now the application to search for travel companions Waze successfully works in Israel - almost at any time of the day you can find a passing car in almost every corner of the country.

During the pilot program of a taxi, Google is charged at 54 cents per mile (22 rubles per kilometer), and the company does not take a cent of this money. Unlike proprietary commercial services Uber, Lyft, Yandex.Taxi and others, the main purpose of which is to make a profit by exploiting professional taxi drivers. Although they are trying to experiment with carpooling, they are not doing it very actively, because they are satisfied with the current situation in terms of profit.

This is a fundamental difference between the business model of Google from all services that exist now. Current services are a small variety of regular taxis, and Google launches real carpooling.

The basic principle of carpooling is that the fuel costs are distributed proportionally and the route that is optimal for all participants of the trip is chosen without significant deviations from the driver’s (the car’s owner’s) main route. This is different from a taxi, where a passenger pays expenses and he chooses a route. There is a difference from hitchhiking, where in fact only the driver pays, which follows strictly on its own route.

According to Google lawyers, the incomes of drivers who find companions through Waze carpooling are not commercial income and should not be taxed because they equate to a joint payment for gasoline, that is, to car sharing.

Such a business model for Google should deliver a damning blow to the business of a private company Uber, which is now valued at about $ 68 billion. But lately they are increasingly competing in various fields. Now Uber has even encroached on the sacred - and announced the development of its own unmanned vehicles and its own maps instead of Google Maps. The company Uber has bought a startup for the development of unmanned transport Ottomotto LLC, founded by Google veterans, and intends to begin testing unmanned taxi in a few weeks in Pittsburgh.

Two days ago, Alphabet top manager (parent company for Google) David Drummond announced his retirement.from the Uber board of directors due to increased competition between the two companies - and the resulting conflict of interest.

From today about any partnership can not speak.

When the Waze service is open to everyone, anyone will be able to register as a driver or passenger in the program and find fellow travelers. There will be no tests, examinations or special requirements for drivers. The system will be based on user evaluations - as practice shows, this method is much more efficient than centralized licensing of taxi drivers with periodic technical inspections and inspections by regulatory authorities. Here, the system effectively regulates itself without the unnecessary involvement of the authorities.

Probably in the future, Google will start charging a certain percentage of each trip through Waze. It is logical to do this after the destruction of Uber, Lyft, Yandex.Taxi and other competitors.



Interestingly, many drivers now use the Waze program for navigation. This is a very popular application with good reviews. Moreover, few drivers know that the application belongs to Google. According to analysts, the excellent reputation of Waze can play into the hands of Google.

It is interesting how the government agencies, who have no idea how to regulate the economy based on equal cooperation of citizens , will treat the initiative of the “national taxi” .

If carpooling becomes an effective and cheaper alternative to taxis, then replacing drivers with unmanned vehicles will be more painless and natural. Owners of cars will simply send their cars "to earn money" instead of sitting behind the wheel and pick up fellow travelers.

While the person works in the office, his car will earn some money for the family budget, at the same time he will take his wife and children to the right place, bring purchases from the store. Life will be beautiful!