As reported by GigaOM: For those of you wondering why Uber broke the news
of its new carpooling feature after 8 pm ET last night, we now have a
potential answer. It looks like Uber may have been trying to beat its
pink mustachioed rival — Lyft — to the punch.
This morning Lyft announced
its own version of carpooling: Lyft Line. Passengers going the same
direction can request “Line” within the app, the same way they might
request a regular Lyft or a Lyft Plus. The app will match people who are
requesting pick up in the same neighborhood, and the Lyft driver will
swing around to get everyone.
The interface of the Lyft app, with the added carpool option under the “Line” tab
Just like with Uber’s proposed “UberPool,” this is likely to be a slower car ordering option than regular Lyft, but it will slash the costs. The app will automatically deduct a discount that’s 10-60 percent less than the ride would normally be otherwise, so passengers don’t need to haggle among themselves to figure out a fair split.
“Even if a match isn't made, passengers will still get a ride as
requested, and will pay the fixed discounted price shown when they first
requested the ride,” said a Lyft spokeswoman. “This will feel like an
original Lyft ride at a more affordable price.” UberPool will also offer
customers a discount, regardless of whether they find a carpooling
match.
The similarities between Lyft Line and UberPool are so striking that it’s likely information was leaked between the two competitors. Uber may have been the first to make its new feature announcement, but Lyft is more prepared to actually roll it out. The company had a polished commercial to accompany the blog post and is launching the feature to all iOS users in San Francisco starting today, whereas Uber is testing UberPool with a beta group before slowly rolling it out to more people starting August 15th.
Either way, as with all of the price wars and product competition
happening in ridesharing, the consumer ultimately benefits. Lyft Line
and UberPool cut ridesharing costs even more, which will in turn widen
the audience of people who can afford to use them.
As I mentioned yesterday, it was strange to see Uber roll out a carpooling option before Lyft, given that the initial premise of Lyft’s company was carpooling. Back in the day, co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green launched a company called Zimride that matched people traveling long distances for rides, with the added benefit of energy conservation and community building. Zimride pivoted into Lyft — a not-particularly-energy-efficient alternative — when the Lyft side experiment took off with users.
It appears the company never forgot its original mission.
The interface of the Lyft app, with the added carpool option under the “Line” tab
Just like with Uber’s proposed “UberPool,” this is likely to be a slower car ordering option than regular Lyft, but it will slash the costs. The app will automatically deduct a discount that’s 10-60 percent less than the ride would normally be otherwise, so passengers don’t need to haggle among themselves to figure out a fair split.
“Even if a match isn't made, passengers will still get a ride as
requested, and will pay the fixed discounted price shown when they first
requested the ride,” said a Lyft spokeswoman. “This will feel like an
original Lyft ride at a more affordable price.” UberPool will also offer
customers a discount, regardless of whether they find a carpooling
match.The similarities between Lyft Line and UberPool are so striking that it’s likely information was leaked between the two competitors. Uber may have been the first to make its new feature announcement, but Lyft is more prepared to actually roll it out. The company had a polished commercial to accompany the blog post and is launching the feature to all iOS users in San Francisco starting today, whereas Uber is testing UberPool with a beta group before slowly rolling it out to more people starting August 15th.
Either way, as with all of the price wars and product competition
happening in ridesharing, the consumer ultimately benefits. Lyft Line
and UberPool cut ridesharing costs even more, which will in turn widen
the audience of people who can afford to use them.As I mentioned yesterday, it was strange to see Uber roll out a carpooling option before Lyft, given that the initial premise of Lyft’s company was carpooling. Back in the day, co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green launched a company called Zimride that matched people traveling long distances for rides, with the added benefit of energy conservation and community building. Zimride pivoted into Lyft — a not-particularly-energy-efficient alternative — when the Lyft side experiment took off with users.
It appears the company never forgot its original mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment