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The popular transportation company will activate soon a pilot feature in the United Kingdom
Do you see yourself booking your next trip and including flights, train tickets, and car rides all through just one app? Uber does and will make it possible for its customers.
Uber announced their new ambitious plan on Wednesday. The American company —based in San Francisco and currently operating in 85 countries— is planning on developing a “Super-App” that will include car rental, flights, rail operators, inter-city buses, and even hotels.
The concept involves alliances with other companies and software integration. Uber itself won’t be providing the services directly, it will expand its networks and connect more customers to more services.
A pilot will start running in the United Kingdom, the tech giant’s largest market after the United States. Jamie Heywood, Uber General Manager for the UK said: “You have been able to book rides, bikes, boat services, and scooters on the Uber app for a number of years, so adding trains and coaches is a natural progression.”
Heywood also shared information about the company’s vision: “Later this year we plan to incorporate flights, and in the future hotels, by integrating leading partners into the Uber app to create a seamless door-to-door travel experience.”
The news has been shared right after Uber won a 30-month license to operate in London and weeks after the UK dropped all COVID-19 restrictions. Regarding the pandemic, Heywood said: “With COVID behind us, with this big push into new modes of transport, we want to signal that this is a very important growth lever for us over the coming years.”
More About The New “Super-App”
It’s not a new idea. Ever since CEO Dara Khosrowshahi —former Expedia CEO— joined Uber, the intention to expand the app features to provide more options to users has been discussed.
In 2018, at a TechCrunch event, Khosrowshahi said that they wanted to become “the Amazon of transportation” and even projected further in the future: “And hopefully, 10 years from now no one in the audience is going to own a car.” At the moment, Khosrowshahi even talked about flying cars.
Uber has already partnered with other businesses and has bought companies like JUMP bikes. Its services have been constantly broadening throughout the years.
The new long-distance travel booking feature will be available on the UK app this year. Uber hasn’t disclosed which travel companies will join their network and stated: “We will not be selling tickets directly and will be fully partnering with existing aggregator or API services when we go live.”
However, according to the information shared by Financial Times, in just a few weeks, during summer, train and coach booking features will go live, and the flights booking option is expected to operate by the end of 2022.
Uber’s Current Travel Updates
There are big changes coming up soon in the UK, and there are also current updates travelers and Uber users shouldn’t miss in the US.
Just two weeks ago the long-term duel between Uber and the iconic yellow cabs in New York ended. Uber announced that taxi cabs will be featured on its app and users will get to choose their preferred option.
The taxi fares will be similar to UberX rides and taxi drivers will also be able to accept or decline rides. This new feature will be available this spring.
UK users will also see other updates. Uber, —and rental car companies— also joined the electric car trend. Uber Green recently expanded in the UK and now users can request electric vehicles in Greater London with similar prices to UberX and drivers will earn a higher percentage from tips.
As more countries ease travel restrictions and more travelers book new destinations, tech companies develop features and expand networks. In the following months, more app users will be able to plan trips in an easier and more practical way.
Read More:
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New York Taxis Officially Become Available On Uber
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