Google Starts Ride-Share Service to Rival Uber

Google is getting into the ride-sharing business, starting this fall. According to the Wall Street Journal, the tech giant tested a pilot program this spring around its San Francisco headquarters, enabling thousands of workers at particular companies to utilize Waze—a real-time driving directions app Google acquired in 2013—to connect with fellow commuters. Unlike top ride-sharing competitors Uber and Lyft, sources familiar with the Waze program say Google intends to make fares low enough to discourage drivers from acting as taxi drivers and encourage them to share rides with commuters already heading in a similar direction. As of now, the Journal reported, the pilot program charges riders at most 54 cents per mile. When the program is opened up to the general public, it will continue to only be available in San Francisco at first.