Uber is taking a transportation product it developed for commuters in India and Egypt and converting it for the American public.
The ride-hail and delivery giant announced Wednesday at its annual Go-Get event in New York that it will launch a ride-hailing service in select U.S. cities this summer. The service will eventually cater for events such as concerts and sporting events, as well as airport pick-ups and drop-offs.
Uber Shuttle in the US will bring back the technology and business model that Uber has built to help commuters in emerging markets where there is a gap in public transportation. Instead of tapping regular gig workers to drive the buses, Uber will partner with existing local fleet providers that employ commercially licensed drivers to drive trucks and buses ranging from 14 to 55 seats.
“If you look at what we’re doing in India and Egypt, we’ll say, ‘Where do we want to carve out our own routes based on a forecasted demand that we see across the city,'” Anthony Le Roux, general manager of Uber Shuttle. he told TechCrunch. “We’re building a network and working with fleet operators in those markets to deploy buses along those routes, and we’re building and managing the entire system.”
In the U.S., Le Roux said such transportation services don’t make much sense because public transit infrastructure exists and Americans are fixated on driving their own vehicles. What does make sense, though, is to tap into the situations where people are least likely to take their own vehicles. Like if they want to have a few drinks at the ball game or need a cheap way to get to the airport.
The biggest challenge will be figuring out exactly where to pick people up and at what times, Le Roux said. That’s where Uber’s vast warehouses of aggregated data will come in to give developers a better idea of how people actually move from airports, stadiums and auditoriums, he said.
How Uber Shuttle will work
Uber will launch event buses this summer as part of a partnership with entertainment company Live Nation. As part of this partnership, Uber Shuttle will be available at select Live Nation theaters for concertgoers in Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Chicago. Uber said it will also partner with Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, Formula One, the Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix and other events to provide transportation services.
Airport shuttles will come later, an Uber spokesman said, without specifying when.
Uber Shuttle will allow riders to reserve a seat for themselves or up to five people on a bus going to and from an airport, concert or game for “a fraction of the price” of an UberX, a spokesperson told TechCrunch the company’s. . Uber promises that bus fares will not be affected by surge pricing, the dynamic pricing structure that causes fares to skyrocket when demand is high.
Riders will be able to reserve their seats anywhere from seven days to five minutes before their bus is scheduled to depart. They will receive a notification approximately 25 minutes prior to their departure time to notify them of the designated pickup location. When their bus arrives, riders will present a ticket with a QR code to the driver to board, and the rest of the trip proceeds like a regular Uber ride, with the option to tip and rate the driver in the app after the ride .
During the Go-Get event, Uber also announced a number of other transportation and delivery products, including the ability to book shared rides and deliver products from the mass market store Costco. The company said the Go-Get theme this year was “togetherness,” but from where we sit, it looks like the theme is really about cost savings. All of the products offered Wednesday, including the $4.99-a-month, $48-a-year Uber One subscription for students, appear geared toward giving users cheaper options for travel and delivery.
This article has been updated to include more information about other products announced at Uber Go-Get 2024.
