Uber brings carpool service to Australia

Uber will bring its long-awaited carpooling service to Australia next week, offering passengers the opportunity to share the cost of rides.

The rideshare company will begin offering its UberPool service in a Sydney test zone - spanning Watsons Bay to Leichardt - on Tuesday April 3, before expanding to other suburbs and other cities.

UberPool will allow customers to share their ride with other passengers by matching riders heading in the same direction.

The UberPool algorithm considers factors like driver destination and wait times when deciding whether or not to make a match.

Unlike the door-to-door service offered by UberX, the carpooling service will require passengers to walk a short distance to and from pick-up and drop-off points.

The company said it determined the best pick-up zones across Sydney by combining years worth of data on local UberX rides with human assessment.

“By getting more people in fewer cars, we can achieve better utilisation of the resources we already have on the road,” the company said in a statement.

“That means this service can help cut congestion and pollution over time.”

The service was first introduced in the US in August 2014, and has since expanded to other global markets, including Singapore and selected cities in France and Malaysia.