Waze, the Google-owned traffic navigation app, said Monday more than 25,000 employees at select companies in the Bay Area will be able to test a carpooling option that allows them to hitch a ride with Waze drivers.

Employees can download a free app, Waze Rider, that lets them request a ride from other Waze users who share a similar commute. Then, drivers can choose whether to approve that request in the original Waze app. The riders are matched with drivers from the app’s more than 700,000 Bay Area users.

“This is kind of an extension of what we do at Waze, to build this trusted community,” said Josh Fried, head of partner development for Waze’s carpooling efforts. Already, Waze drivers notify other app users if there are accidents or police monitoring traffic on the roads.

Participants in Waze’s carpool pilot include UCSF, Adobe and Walmart Global eCommerce. The initial partners were chosen in part because of their close proximity to Google offices. The search giant has already been testing Waze Rider among its own employees, so adding nearby companies ensures a large pool of drivers with similar commutes.

Riders pay Waze drivers a suggested amount, based on the standard rate set by the IRS — 54 cents per mile. In the pilot program at least, Waze does not take a cut of the transaction. Waze tried a similar pilot program last year in Israel, where it took a 15 percent commission if riders paid drivers. (In the Israeli program, riders could request a free ride.)

While many people agree on the benefits of carpooling, few do it.

The difficulty of finding enough people to consistently fill a car, safety concerns and the awkwardness associated with an exchange of money have created barriers for decades, said Susan Shaheen, co-director of UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center.

But technology could help eliminate these barriers, she said. Connecting nearby riders and drivers and estimating wait times — as Uber and Lyft have done — make ride sharing a more reliable transportation option. Lyft expanded its service this year to include a carpool option from San Francisco to the South Bay, and Uber is testing a carpool option in Chicago.

By making carpooling available to employees at specific companies, Waze creates a destination in common, which makes it more likely that riders will consistently use the service. There are also other carpooling-related apps, including Carma and Scoop, but they lack the scale of Waze.

“Critical mass is a big reason carpooling hasn’t been able to be as successful as it could be,” Shaheen said. “It’s exciting to see how we can use technology in a socially and environmentally beneficial way.”

Rishita Patel, 29, said she’s driven about six Waze riders over the last few months. The Google employee said carpooling has sped up her commute to and from her home in lower Pacific Heights and Google’s Mountain View headquarters. It’s also allowed her to meet new people along the way.

“It’s pretty fun meeting new Googlers,” Patel said.