I think I have a rideshare curse. Whenever I book a trip that’s just a five-minute drive, I get a luxury vehicle picking me up. Yet my trips to the airport land me in a beat-up 2000 Toyota Corolla that makes for a very uncomfortable hour-long ride. But what if there was a level of autonomy across the rideshare platform that meant you always knew what you were going to get (and no, I’m not talking about paying for a better car)?
At a recent event, Uber chief Dara Khosrowshahi revealed his firm is planning to make rideshare- and delivery-specific electric vehicles. Features of the rideshare cars will be lower top speeds to reduce costs and seats that face each other so passengers can converse more leisurely. Meanwhile, Uber envisions its new delivery vehicles to have two or three wheels to better navigate city streets. These EVs will also have large trunk space for storing deliveries.
There’s no word on which automakers Uber plans to partner with, or a timeline for when the EVs will launch, but the idea of my seat not facing forward in the back of an Uber is giving me motion sickness, so I can wait.
by travelers, for travelers.