After much anticipation, Uber has launched its first ever electric scooter service by the brand name Jump (Uber Electric Bike). The dockless device is unique as it requires no special docks to park and users can easily swap their scooter if they find a scooter while walking to the booked scooter.
When Uber acquired the company Jump earlier this year, they committed to providing green transportation. Uber claims the idea of Electric Bike is much more interesting than what other companies have to offer.
Electric scooters were launched in a number of cities of the United States last year and soon took over the whole nation. And now the trend has even touched some parts of Europe and the Middle East.
With Jump, Uber has now come in a direct competition with names like Lime, Bird, and Lyft, which have already created a prominent place in the e-Scooter market.
About Uber Jump bikes
The bikes will cost $1 to unlock and will charge 15 cents for every minute after that. The per minute charge will begin 5 minutes after the bike has been unlocked to give users the time to locate their bikes. Once the ride is over, users shall park the bike in designated parking lots or a fine of $25 will be charged.
To keep up with the competition, Uber is offering free rides to its users till October 7th, 2018. For the convenience of riders, the Uber Electric Bike can be booked through the Uber mobile app after the mobile app has been updated through the app store.
The scooters that Uber is going to use are manufactured by Ninebot, the parent company of Segway. This same company supplies scooters to Lime, Lyft, Bird and many other companies.
[Next read: How Uber Works? Breaking down the Uber Business and Revenue Model]
Uber is trying to come up with new features and facilities to ace the green transportation commitment. The scooter swap feature is absolutely new in the market and is set to give an edge to the business.
This is not the first time Uber has set out to try something new. Uber already has UberBoat and UberCopter launched in France and Croatia. And with the launch of Jump electric scooters, Uber is aiming to become one stop for all types of transportation facilities.
Sources say that Uber also aims to add Lime, a company in which Uber has invested, in the Uber app. This will expand the business rapidly in new places as Lime is currently operating in 90 cities in the USA and 6 in Europe.
[Extra: Learn about the $335 Million Funding that Uber and Google made in LimeBike]
The CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi said that the company is expecting that electric bicycles and scooter to become the future of transportation. These Electric Bikes are aiming to provide as many scooters as there are cars under Uber’s flagship.
Talking about the Uber Electric Bike launch, Dara quoted –
“As we work towards having your phone replace your car, we’re thinking about all the possible times you’d hop in the car and go, and what smart, equally as convenient option we could offer to get you there instead. Whether going that last mile home from the train, to your favorite nearby restaurant, or between offices, scooters are an affordable, environmentally friendly way to get there. We can’t wait to bring scooters to more cities and help people conquer those short trips.”
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