Uber to bring its vehicle pooling product UberPOOL to India very soon

It’s possible the company plans to focus UberPool in dense cities, where it’s more likely to find matches between passengers heading the same way, instead of sprawling suburbs.

Uber on Monday announced the launch of its pioneering car-pooling product UberPOOL in India.

“Our vision for “UberPOOL” means helping solve some of the toughest problems cities face today, whether it’s congestion, pollution, or lack of access to transportation”. Called UberPool, the service will be available in beta in Bengaluru in the coming weeks.

With UberPOOL, commuters can share a ride and split the cost with another person riding along with them.

“Following the recent carpooling initiative by the Bengaluru Traffic Police to increase the utilisation of cars on the road, we’re announcing our first step toward that vision with UberPOOL”, Rathod said. After the service’s launch in Uber’s home city of San Francisco in August 2014, the company recorded “millions” of UberPOOL trips, the company said in a post on its website in April. The objective is to help people move past auto ownership.

Uber is now available in 22 Indian cities, which is the largest number of cities it is operating in outside the United States.

The San Francisco-headquartered company is also running a bespoke vehicle financing programme for partner drivers in India. The company has slashed prices, introduced low-cost services, and even accepted cash payments to adapt its lean business model to India and Indians.

Informal carpooling services are widespread in India at prices incredibly low by Uber’s normal standards. With base of over 1,65,000 driver entrepreneurs and 40 percent month on month growth, the company claims to have gained a market share of more than 40% in India.

Uber will also be taking on its competitors – sources tell Re/code that Ola Cabs is launching its carpool version, Ola Share, in five cities soon. Taxi operator Meru Cabs launched a carpooling service last week. In India, it will compete with the likes of Tripda and BlaBlaCar (two European ride-sharing startups with significant operations in India), in addition to a slew of domestic players such as Zupp and Ryde (owned by ibiboGroup).