Google's comany Waze to launch ride-sharing app in Israel
Waze, an Israeli mapping company owned by Google is launching a carpooling app called RideWith. A pilot project has started in Tel Aviv and will use Waze's navigation system to match drivers up with passengers who take a similar route. It's unlikely the company will run into problems like that of Uber and other car-sharing services in the country, opting for large limitations such as only allowing drivers to made two trips a day so not to start a business from the service. 
Waze CEO Noam Bardin. Getty/Handout

Waze, an Israeli mapping company owned by Google, is launching a carpooling app called RideWith, Tech.eu reports.

This week Google and Waze plan to start a pilot project around Tel Aviv, using the feedback to tweak the app for a wider release in Israel. Tech.eu reports that Waze could then roll RideWith out in other countries, but the company told Business Insider it did not yet have any expansion plans beyond Israel.

Google acquired the mapping firm Waze, which uses location information shared by people using the app to provide others with details of any traffic or route problems, for $1 billion in June 2013.

According to Haaretz, RideWith will use Waze's navigation system to match drivers up with passengers who normally take a similar route from home to work at the same time. Passengers will pay drivers a small fee for the ride. But there are a few big limitations to the service that would probably stop it from running into the same problems as Uber has. Drivers will be able to make only two trips a day — the trips they would normally be making from home to work and back. This means drivers would not be able to start a business from the trips.

This is different from the way taxi-hailing apps such as Uber, Lyft, and Israeli competitor Gett operate. But if RideWith does end up rolling out in other markets, it could still compete with them on the morning commute. It would also compete directly with carpooling apps such as BlaBlaCar, which has acquired its German rival Carpooling.com and just launched in Turkey, Tech.eu reports.

Uber is expected to proceed with a regulatory battle so that Uber X can operate legally in Israel, Haaretz reports. The country's transportation minster, Yisrael Katz, said he intended to protect ordinary taxi drivers from Uber's budget taxi service.

But because of the limitations on how much a passenger can pay a driver — the rate suggested by Google for a trip from Tel Aviv to Herzliya will be 13 shekels ($3.46, or £2.21) — and how many trips a driver can take, RideWith doesn't expect to come up against any regulatory issues, Haaretz says.

To begin with, the pilot will be limited to three places — Tel Aviv, Ra'anana, and Herzliya, cities just to the north of Tel Aviv, where a lot of tech companies are based. According to Haaretz, about 200,000 employees in Israel already carpool to work.