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Podcasts Take Two
Lyft introduces carpooling to its list of services
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Oct 2, 2014
Listen • 5:37
Lyft introduces carpooling to its list of services
Ride-sharing platform Lyft wants to make carpooling cool again. The company has introduced Lyft Line, a program that uses an algorithm to match users based on their routes.
The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on a proposal Thursday changing the insurance requirements for companies like Lyft.
A woman gets into a Lyft vehicle. The ride-sharing platform wants to make carpooling cool again with Lyft Line, a program that uses an algorithm to match users based on their routes.
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Ride-sharing platform Lyft wants to make carpooling cool again. The company has introduced Lyft Line, a program that uses an algorithm to match users based on their routes.

The percentage of workers who carpool has decreased by half since 1980, according to Census numbers. Now, the ride-sharing platform Lyft wants to make carpooling cool again, but with a twist for the smartphone era. The company has introduced Lyft Line, a program that uses an algorithm to match users based on their routes.

"The idea with Lyft is really creating a realtime matching system that is infinite in its possibilities and routes so that you can go wherever you are to wherever you're going at any time of the day," says Veronica Juarez, director of government relations for the ride sharing program Lyft.

Introducing Lyft Line

The new program has been met with some pushback. State regulators have sent letters to both Lyft and Uber, which is also testing a carpool service, warning what the companies are doing may be illegal.

Undeterred, Lyft launched its carpool service this week in Los Angeles.

Juarez is hopeful this effort will make it "easier for elected leaders to see the possibility of the Lyft platform and to see that this really could be a solution to a problem that [cities] have."