Here’s how Uber wants to solve commuting
Uber has already revolutionised our late night trips after a night out, but now Uber wants to do the same for your daily commute to work.
The boss of the billion dollar startup Travis Kalanick has spoken about one of the bigger plans for the company and the future of commuting – carpooling.
"Is there a way that someone could pick up a neighbor on the way to work? We have the technology for it, but there are also regulatory frameworks we have to work with. Why can’t these folks get a little more incentive?," he said, Bloomberg reports, speaking at a conference in Brussels yesterday.
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UberPool launched in London at the end of last year, and is designed to give users a cheaper ride by sharing with strangers heading in the same direction. Uber believes the service can also help reduce the number of cars on the road in cities across the world.
"Imagine if the 300,000 Brussels citizens driving into work this morning could pick somebody up and make a small profit from doing it," Kalanick said. "More people would carpool, we’d have less congestion, the air would be less polluted, we’d all live in a better place. The city doesn’t even have to use taxes to make it happen."
Read more: Uber commissioned research says Uber is not the source of London congestion
In some cities, UberPool journeys already account for half of journeys made, and early research by scientists in the US already indicates that there has been a positive impact on reducing traffic and emissions, according to the New York Times.
Kalanick also said he'd been meeting with regulators in Brussels. The startup has stumbled with authorities in the UK and elsewhere across the continent when it comes to regulation.
"We’re making our case but also learning what it’s going to take to bring our kind of innovation to many cities here in Europe," he said.