Uber is making it a lot easier and more inexpensive than ever to travel from the far cities of Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Jose to San Francisco as it has just unveiled its new flat-fee long-distance uberPOOL service, tempting riders to ditch their cars.
Uber users can try out the company's newest product from Monday through Friday, 6 to 10 a.m., for as low as $20.
With this new offering from Uber, riders, for instance, coming from Palo Alto to San Francisco will only need to fork an average fare of $20 out of their pockets. If commuters come from Mountain View to San Francisco, the average fare is only $22 while riders located at San Jose who will head over to San Francisco will pay $26.
"You don't have to worry about gas or parking," writes Uber in a blog post. "[J]ust open the Uber app and POOL to work."
Uber notes that the fare is displayed in the app prior to the ride, so unexpected traffic will not affect the cost.
What's more, Uber is throwing in an extra offering to sweeten the pot: if riders are commuting with a friend, they will only need to add $10 on the fare and they can split the price for a more low-cost, long-distance trip.
This new product from Uber, according to the company's Bay Area General Manager Wayne Ting, is aimed at alleviating the hassle and cost of driving to San Francisco.
"With more folks sharing rides, we can make the price point more affordable, help get cars off the road and ease congestion," says Ting.
Meanwhile, Didi Chuxing (formerly known Didi Kuaidi), Uber's archrival in China, has announced The Didi Bus, an Internet-based bus-booking service which will be integrated into its main application.
"This new fully integrated solution further expands Didi Kuaidi's one-stop mobile transportation platform that already provides taxi-hailing, online car-booking, chauffeur and ride-sharing services," says Didi Chuxing.
It touts the service has already over 500,000 commuters.
Google's Waze, in the meantime, has tried out a shared trip functionality for riders. Another startup named Ride is centered on carpooling for co-workers.
