Waze Carpool is gone — here's what to use in 2026
Google shut down Waze Carpool in September 2022 and never brought it back. If you loved the idea — regular people sharing a ride and splitting the cost, no commercial markup — the model didn't die. Here's where it lives now, depending on the kind of trip you take.
What made Waze Carpool different
Waze Carpool wasn't Uber. Drivers weren't working a job — they were already making the drive, and riders just chipped in for gas at a price capped near the IRS mileage rate. That cost-sharing model kept rides cheap and kept it a carpool, not a taxi. When Google pulled the plug, nothing directly replaced it — but the model split into two lanes:
The alternatives in 2026
| Option | Best for | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Seat Sherpa | City-to-city trips (SF–LA, LA–Vegas, LA–San Diego…) | Same cost-sharing DNA as Waze Carpool: verified drivers already making the trip, seat prices capped at real cost split across seats, payment held securely until pickup, no surge |
| Employer / regional vanpools (e.g. 511.org in the Bay Area) | Daily commutes | Organized commuter matching, sometimes subsidized |
| Facebook & college carpool groups | Ad-hoc trips | Post and coordinate yourself — no verification or payment protection |
| Craigslist rideshare | Ad-hoc trips | Classic classifieds board; everything on trust |
| Uber / Lyft | Short on-demand hops | Commercial pricing — impractical for long trips ($200+ SF–LA) |
An honest note: Waze Carpool focused on daily commutes. Seat Sherpa focuses on the trips where sharing saves the most money — medium-to-long-distance, city-to-city travel. If you're looking for a daily 9-to-5 commute match, start with your employer or regional programs. If you're going SF→LA, LA→Vegas, or down to San Diego, read on.
🚗 The same idea, alive for road trips
Seat Sherpa keeps the part of Waze Carpool that mattered: drivers can't profit — seat prices are capped at the trip's real cost (IRS mileage rate ÷ seats), so a SF → LA seat runs $40–$55 and LA → Vegas $35–$50. Drivers are ID- and license-verified, payment is held until a pickup code confirms the trip, and both sides rate each other. Live across California & Nevada.
Browse live ridesWhen exactly was Waze Carpool discontinued?
Google announced the shutdown in July 2022 and the service stopped operating that September. It had launched in Israel in 2015 and reached all 50 US states by 2019 — then the pandemic hollowed out the daily commute it depended on, and Google folded the team back into the main Waze navigation app. Waze itself is very much alive; only the carpool matching feature is gone, and there has been no indication it will return.
If you're searching for it because the option vanished from your Waze app, that's why. The navigation app you still have is the same one — the "Carpool" tab simply no longer exists.
Why nothing directly replaced it
Waze Carpool solved a specific problem: matching two strangers whose daily commutes overlapped, for a couple of dollars. That model needs enormous density in a small geography to work — thousands of people driving the same route at the same hour — and it collapses the moment offices go hybrid. No one has rebuilt it at that scale in the US, because the underlying commute pattern never came back.
What did survive is the longer-distance version of the same idea: someone is driving Los Angeles to San Francisco on Friday anyway, and three seats are empty. That trip is worth planning around, the cost split is meaningful ($40–55 instead of $200+), and it doesn't depend on rush-hour density. That's the niche cost-sharing marketplaces now occupy.
Waze Carpool vs what exists now
| Waze Carpool (2015–2022) | Today | |
|---|---|---|
| Trip type | Daily commute, same-day matching | Planned intercity trips, booked ahead |
| Pricing | Capped at IRS mileage rate — drivers couldn't profit | Same principle: IRS rate split across seats |
| Who drives | Anyone already making the drive | Unchanged — no professional drivers |
| Payment | In-app | In-app, held until a pickup code confirms the trip started |
| Coverage | All 50 states (at peak) | Regional — Seat Sherpa covers California & Nevada |
FAQ
Why was Waze Carpool shut down?
Google discontinued it in September 2022, citing post-pandemic commuting changes. It hasn't returned.
Is Waze Carpool discontinued?
Yes. Google announced it in July 2022 and shut the service down that September. The Waze navigation app continues; only the carpool feature was removed.
Is the Waze carpool app still available on Android?
No. The standalone Waze Carpool app was removed from Google Play and the App Store when the service closed in September 2022. The regular Waze navigation app is still available and unaffected.
What replaced Waze Carpool?
Nothing directly. Commuters moved to employer/regional vanpools; city-to-city riders use cost-sharing marketplaces like Seat Sherpa.
Is there still a carpool app where drivers don't profit?
Yes — Seat Sherpa caps seat prices at the driver's actual trip cost, exactly the cost-sharing principle Waze Carpool used.
Missed Waze Carpool? You'll feel at home.
Split the gas with a driver already headed your way.
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