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10 Carpooling Apps To Take This Weekend In San Francisco That Aren’t Uber

Sarah Buhr
Anna Escher
Chariot
Chariot aims to provide a superior transit alternative along crowdsourced routes where customers live. Shuttles arrive every few minutes to collect commuters at pre-selected stops along the way.”
Carma Carpool
Thisu00a0service hooks you up with others nearby looking for a similar commute. Poolers pick a route and pay drivers by the mile. Those in San Francisco who want to get paid to drive but don’t have a car of their own can get one from Carma.”
Scoop
Think of it as carpooling with flexibility. Schedule your morning commute on your own terms and Scoop will “scoop” you up when you want. If you can’t find a ride home, Scoop will cover the cost of alternative transportation. Sure, the possibility of maybe not getting a rideu00a0is a pain in arse, but it promises to beu00a0cheaperu00a0than Lyft oru00a0Uber with surge-free pricing and keeps one less car off the 101.”
Magic Bus
Normally I’d caution you not to get into anything calledu00a0a “magic bus” but this commuter shuttle startup aims to improve public transportation with WiFi and a direct route to work.”
Ride
Like many of the carpooling apps on this list, Ride hopes to take more cars off the road by getting people to share their commute. The app does this by connecting users with those nearby who want to go in the same direction. Ride then automatically splits the cost among each rider so you don’t have to figure out who owes what to whom after.”
Hovee
Hovee taps into your social network to hook you up with friends and neighbors going the same way. But that might make it harder to hitch a ride – a recent search in my neighborhood turned up zero rides in the San Francisco area.”
Carzac
Going the distance? Carzac wants to be the app you use to pile in the car together for those famously long Silicon Valley commutes. Those taking a longer drive can supplement that commute by picking up passengers along the way willing to pay for gas.”
Duet
Think of Duet as Nextdoor for carpooling. Neighbors sign up to schedule a ride together on particular days and times. Those on the same commute can either switch off as drivers and riders or keep one driver. The one behind the wheel gets the gas money.”
Shared Rides
Sidecar – Uber and Lyft’s rarely mentioned step-cousin – introduced a carpooling platform last year called Shared Rides – and it’s pretty much exactly like Lyft Line and UberPOOL, sans the deeply discounted upfront pricing. Those on Sidecar can select the feature within the app and it will match them with others going their way. The app then splits the cost among riders.”
Shuddle
Speaking of Sidecar, Shuddle was founded by one of the co-founders as a carpooling service for the kids. Teens and tweens schedule rides for themselves instead of asking the ‘rents to take them somewhere. Adults must approve those rides first and Shuddle drivers go through a background vetting process before schlepping children about town.”
Let’s all agree that public transportation in San Francisco is not the greatest, but there’s plenty more ways to get about town and not all of them include clicking on UberPOOL. Here we present a handful of startups in San Francisco hoping to make your commute easier than MUNI and cleaner and cheaper than Uber and Lyft. *H/T to 7×7 for first compiling a number of the carpooling apps listed here.

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Sarah Buhr

I write about the wild new frontier of biotechnology (3D printed organs, one drop blood tests, or hamburgers grown in a lab? I’m your gal), also a bit of politics, gender and diversity and sometimes they put me on camera at TechCrunch so send your fun gadgets and gizmos my way.

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Anna Escher

Anna Escher manages Audience Development at TechCrunch.

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October 27-29, 2025
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