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RideWith Google No Ordinary Ride Share

Google is building on the concept of ride-sharing and mobile apps through a carpool service it calls RideWith. It's a concept made popular by car services, not taxis, in Brooklyn and Manhattan. You
make a phone call, request a ride, and a contracted individual picks you up and takes you where you want to go for a fee. Uber made it possible to pull out your smartphone, request a ride, and wait
for a pickup.

RideWith pays someone to sit in their car on the way to work. Wave, the company's community mapping service, will power the app. Some believe that eventually Google's self-driving cars could complement this plan.

The test run will take place in the Gush Dan, Tel Aviv, Israel region. The service will become available only to people using devices running the Android operating system. It will initially track the ride share to and from work, and limit people to two trips daily. Passengers will pay a small fee based on the cost of gas and depreciation of the car rather than give money to drivers for services rendered.

Google acquired Waze in 2013 for nearly $1 billion. Waze, available on Android and Apple iOS, allows users to contribute to the Waze community by alerting fellow drivers using Waze to accidents, slow traffic and potential hazards. Phandroid posted images of the app.

Uber has recently set up shop in many of the Gas stations around Huntington Beach, Calif., recruiting drivers with free gas. According to the OC Register, last year a part-time Uber driver in the southern California town of Aliso Viejo earnsed about $30 an hour. One blogger tells his story of making $33 for a 45-minute ride.

Amid the backlash of security checks and growing regulations across cities worldwide, it's no secret that companies that Uber want to build out the business with technology to compete with a growing interest by Google. Last week, Microsoft said Uber would acquire Bing Mapping assets, including a data center, cameras, intellectual property and roughly 100 engineers. Uber is also buying a data center near Boulder, Colo., to integrate technology into the business model.

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