Facebook wants to help its employees escape the tyranny of roads by offering them a water taxi service. The new corporate ferry, currently in a pilot program, carries employees from San Francisco, Calif. to Redwood City, which is near the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park. Riders get to enjoy Wi-Fi, snacks and coffee, a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable. Google also piloted a ferry service earlier this year to take employees from San Francisco to Redwood City.
Water-based transport might be an appealing alternative to bus service for tech companies, who are facing a backlash on city streets from San Francisco and Oakland citizens who say tech workers are excessively gentrifying their neighborhoods. Protestors have been blocking and, in at least one instance, attacking so-called “Google buses,” shuttles that use public bus stops to take employees of high-tech firms to work. In January San Francisco began imposing fees on the private shuttles, but protests have continued and are now spreading to Seattle to target Microsoft.
