Lyft Line, UberPool: Carpooling Features to Compete with Mass Transit

The ever popular, pink-mustache-touting, app-based, peer-to-peer taxi business Lyft delved into a new realm today, by offering a carpooling service for its customers. According to a report by Jeff Bercovici of Forbes, Lyft customers are incentivized to use this service as they, "can save up to 60% versus what they’d pay for an individual ride. To make the carpool experience less annoying, they’re required to be prepared to depart within one minute of the car’s arrival."

Indeed, drivers, who receive compensation based on mileage and time spent driving, may perceive Lyft Line as "a less attractive deal. But [Lyft CEO Leo] Green says combined trips will usually end up being longer, resulting in higher fares and less downtime."

On Monday though, Uber announced plans for UberPool, a similar carpooling product to launch in limited beta in San Francisco on August 15th.