Uber bets on affordability with shared fixed-route rides, expanded passes
Uber Technologies on Wednesday unveiled a range of new offerings such as shared fixed-route rides and expanded membership passes, targeting consumers seeking cost-effective ways to travel.
The ride-sharing app has been looking to invest in more affordable transport and delivery offerings to widen its user base and combat slowing revenue growth in an uncertain economic environment.
Uber's new "Route Share" ride option will cost half as much as the company's UberX ride-hail service, by providing pickups every 20 minutes along busy commute corridors.
Initially available in cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago, Route Share will operate during weekday rush hours and Uber is considering partnering with employers to integrate pre-tax commuter benefits.
The company is also expanding ride passes that help users lock-in lower fares and keep costs predictable.
These ride passes will be available in major U.S. cities such as Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco, and will be expanded to teen accounts later this year.
Uber unveiled Price Lock Pass for $2.99 in February and it was initially available in a few U.S. markets. The feature will now be available across several cities in the United States and expand throughout the country and Brazil this year, the company said.
The company had announced a partnership with Volkswagen to deploy a fleet of thousands of the German automaker's fully electric ID. Buzz AD vehicles as robotaxis next year. The vehicles will also be used for shared self-driving taxi rides.
Uber is also scaling its tie-up with Waymo in Austin, aiming to increase the number of robotaxis to hundreds of vehicles in the coming months.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
a day ago
- CNA
Exclusive-Google, Scale AI's largest customer, plans split after Meta deal, sources say
SAN FRANCISCO :Alphabet's Google, the largest customer of Scale AI, plans to cut ties with Scale after news broke that rival Meta is taking a 49 per cent stake in the AI data-labeling startup, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Google had planned to pay Scale AI about $200 million this year for the human-labeled training data that is crucial for developing technology, including the sophisticated AI models that power Gemini, its ChatGPT competitor, one of the sources said. The search giant already held conversations with several of Scale AI's rivals this week as it seeks to shift away much of that workload, sources added. Scale's loss of significant business comes as Meta takes a big stake in the company, valuing it at $29 billion. Scale was worth $14 billion before the deal. Scale AI intends to keep its business running while its CEO, Alexandr Wang, along with a few employees, move over to Meta. Since its core business is concentrated around a few customers, it could suffer greatly if it loses key customers like Google. In a statement, a Scale AI spokesperson said its business, which spans work with major companies and governments, remains strong, as it is committed to protecting customer data. The company declined to comment on specifics with Google. Scale AI raked in $870 million in revenue in 2024, and Google spent some $150 million on Scale AI's services last year, sources said. Other major tech companies that are customers of Scale's, including Microsoft, are also backing away. Elon Musk's xAI is also looking to exit, one of the sources said. OpenAI decided to pull back from Scale several months ago, according to sources familiar with the matter, though it spends far less money than Google. OpenAI's CFO said on Friday that the company will continue to work with Scale AI, as one of its many data vendors. Companies that compete with Meta in developing cutting-edge AI models are concerned that doing business with Scale could expose their research priorities and road map to a rival, five sources said. By contracting with Scale AI, customers often share proprietary data as well as prototype products for which Scale's workers are providing data-labeling services. With Meta now taking a 49 per cent stake, AI companies are concerned that one of their chief rivals could gain knowledge about their business strategy and technical blueprints. Google, Microsoft and OpenAI declined to comment. xAI did not respond to a request for comment. RIVALS SEE OPENINGS The bulk of Scale AI's revenue comes from charging generative AI model makers for providing access to a network of human trainers with specialized knowledge - from historians to scientists, some with doctorate degrees. The humans annotate complex datasets that are used to "post-train" AI models, and as AI models have become smarter, the demand for the sophisticated human-provided examples has surged, and one annotation could cost as much as $100. Scale also does data-labeling for enterprises like self-driving car companies and the U.S. government, which are likely to stay, according to the sources. But its biggest money-maker is in partnering with generative AI model makers, the sources said. Google had already sought to diversify its data service providers for more than a year, three of the sources said. But Meta's moves this week have led Google to seek to move off Scale AI on all its key contracts, the sources added. Because of the way data-labeling contracts are structured, that process could happen quickly, two sources said. This will provide an opening for Scale AI's rivals to jump in. "The Meta-Scale deal marks a turning point," said Jonathan Siddharth, CEO of Turing, a Scale AI competitor. "Leading AI labs are realizing neutrality is no longer optional, it's essential." Labelbox, another competitor, will "probably generate hundreds of millions of new revenue" by the end of the year from customers fleeing Scale, its CEO, Manu Sharma, told Reuters. Handshake, a competitor focusing on building a network of PhDs and experts, saw a surge of workload from top AI labs that compete with Meta. "Our demand has tripled overnight after the news," said Garrett Lord, CEO at Handshake. Many AI labs now want to hire in-house data-labelers, which allows their data to remain secure, said Brendan Foody, CEO of Mercor, a startup that in addition to competing directly with Scale AI also builds technology around being able to recruit and vet candidates in an automated way, enabling AI labs to scale up their data labeling operations quickly. Founded in 2016, Scale AI provides vast amounts of labeled data or curated training data, which is crucial for developing sophisticated tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. The Meta deal will be a boon for Scale AI's investors including Accel and Index Ventures, as well as its current and former employees. As part of the deal, Scale AI's CEO, Wang, will take a top position leading Meta's AI efforts. Meta is fighting the perception that it may have fallen behind in the AI race after its initial set of Llama 4 large language models released in April fell short of performance expectations.
CNA
a day ago
- CNA
US dollar lifted by safe-haven bids as MidEast conflict escalates
NEW YORK :The U.S. dollar advanced against major currencies, including the euro and yen, on Friday as markets grabbed safe-haven assets as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East following an Israeli attack on Iran. Israel launched a barrage of strikes across Iran on Friday, attacking nuclear facilities and missile factories and killing a swath of military commanders. In retaliation, Iran's state news agency IRNA said hundreds of ballistic missiles had been launched. U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel's main ally, urged Iran to reach a deal on its nuclear program, suggesting that Tehran had brought the attack on itself by resisting a U.S. ultimatum in talks to restrict its uranium enrichment. In afternoon trading, the dollar gained 0.3 per cent to 143.88 against the Japanese yen and rose 0.1 per cent to 0.8110 franc against the Swiss currency, with the greenback on track to snap two straight sessions of losses against safe-haven currencies. "Historically speaking with these kinds of geopolitical events, you get the knee jerk reaction from the market ... History tells us to kind of look past a lot of this stuff," said Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio manager, at Natixis Investment Managers in Boston. "There's a couple of things worth highlighting. How long does this operation go for? The longer this goes, obviously the worse it gets for confidence and that eventually will start to weigh on the market." The dollar is still poised for a weekly loss against both the yen and the franc, with markets worried about Trump's tariffs. The greenback was down nearly 1 per cent versus the yen, on track for its largest weekly fall since mid-May. Against the Swiss franc, the dollar fell for a second straight week. "This (Israel-Iran conflict) just landed on us but the main concern remains tariffs and obstacles to global trade," said Juan Perez, director of trading at Monex USA in Washington. "When you actually have a physical situation and potential for armed conflict to be prolonged and to escalate, the U.S. dollar and gold jump into safe-haven assets. It's a bit of a psychological reaction." The euro meanwhile, was down 0.4 per cent at $1.1539, on track to snap four straight sessions of gains. It was on pace, however, for a second consecutive weekly rise against the dollar. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, climbed 0.5 per cent to 98.2, snapping two straight sessions of losses. It is still set for a second consecutive week of losses. Gold prices jumped amid safe-haven demand. Spot gold rose 1.6 per cent to $3,437.21 an ounce. Oil prices jumped to multi-month highs, buoyed by the Israeli-Iran conflict. U.S. crude futures surged more than 8 per cent to $73.76 per barrel. Amid the Middle East conflict, investors largely ignored data which showed U.S. consumer sentiment improved for the first time in six months in June. The University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers on Friday said its Consumer Sentiment Index jumped to 60.5 this month, exceeding a Reuters poll of economist expectations. "It's difficult to fix every single item that we are facing this year that has crushed the market's ability to believe in the U.S. dollar," Monex's Perez said. "But at the same time, when it comes to the military and physical aggression or armed conflict, it seems like globally there's still a consensus that you should jump towards historically the safest assets, which is the U.S. dollar as a currency and gold as a commodity to hold on to." Currency bid prices at 13 June 07:12 p.m. GMT Description RIC Last U.S. Close Previous Session Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid Dollar index 98.172 97.679 0.52 per cent -9.51 per cent 98.587 97.612 Euro/Dollar 1.154 1.1586 -0.41 per cent 11.45 per cent $1.1613 $1.1489 Dollar/Yen 143.93 143.595 0.27 per cent -8.5 per cent 144.44 142.795 Euro/Yen 166.12 166.19 -0.04 per cent 1.78 per cent 166.59 164.95 Dollar/Swiss 0.8115 0.8102 0.17 per cent -10.57 per cent 0.8147 0.8056 Sterling/Dollar 1.3564 1.3615 -0.37 per cent 8.46 per cent $1.3633 $1.3518 Dollar/Canadian 1.3593 1.3605 -0.09 per cent -5.48 per cent 1.3653 1.3568 Aussie/Dollar 0.649 0.6532 -0.63 per cent 4.9 per cent $0.6534 $0.6457 Euro/Swiss 0.9365 0.9384 -0.2 per cent -0.32 per cent 0.9392 0.9308 Euro/Sterling 0.8505 0.8506 -0.01 per cent 2.8 per cent 0.8531 0.8494 NZ Dollar/Dollar 0.6018 0.6069 -0.86 per cent 7.53 per cent $0.6068 0.5996 Dollar/Norway 9.9007 9.9347 -0.34 per cent -12.89 per cent 10.0007 9.8937 Euro/Norway 11.4272 11.5115 -0.73 per cent -2.9 per cent 11.537 11.4265 Euro/Sweden 10.9544 10.9385 0.15 per cent -4.47 per cent 10.9891 10.929
CNA
2 days ago
- CNA
Dollar gains, buoyed by safe-haven demand amid rising geopolitical tensions
NEW YORK :The U.S. dollar gained against major currencies, including the euro and yen, on Friday as markets sought safe-haven assets amid rising geopolitical tensions following the outbreak of an Israeli-Iranian conflict. Israel launched a barrage of strikes across Iran on Friday, attacking nuclear facilities and missile factories and killing a swath of military commanders. Iran responded with an armada of drones against Israeli targets. U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel's main ally, urged Iran to reach a deal on its nuclear program, suggesting that Tehran had brought the attack on itself by resisting a U.S. ultimatum in talks to restrict its uranium enrichment. The dollar gained 0.62 per cent to 144.36 against the Japanese yen and rose 0.39 per cent to 0.813 against the Swiss franc, with the greenback on track to snap two straight sessions of losses against safe-haven currencies. The dollar, however, is still poised for a weekly loss against both the yen and the franc, with markets worried about Trump's tariffs. Juan Perez, director of trading at Monex USA in Washington, said the U.S. dollar tends to gain in times of physical uncertainty and chaos including the Israel-Iran conflict, although tariffs remain the main concern among investors. "This (Israel-Iran conflict) just landed on us but the main concern remains tariffs and obstacles to global trade," Perez said. "When you actually have a physical situation and potential for armed conflict to be prolonged and to escalate, the U.S. dollar and gold jump into safe-haven assets. It's a bit of a psychological reaction." The euro was down 0.67 per cent at $1.1505, on track to snap four straight sessions of gains. It is on track, however, for the second consecutive weekly gain against the dollar. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.82 per cent to 98.48, snapping two straight sessions of losses. It is still set for a second consecutive week of losses. Gold prices jumped amid safe-haven demand. Spot gold rose 1.68 per cent to $3,441.04 an ounce. Oil prices jumped 7 per cent to multi-month highs, buoyed by the Israeli-Iran conflict. Brent rose 7 per cent to $74.23 per barrel. "It's difficult to fix every single item that we are facing this year that has crushed the market's ability to believe in the U.S. dollar," Perez added. "But at the same time, when it comes to the military and physical aggression or armed conflict, it seems like globally there's still a consensus that you should jump towards historically the safest assets, which is the U.S. dollar as a currency and gold as a commodity to hold on to."
