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Uber’s carpool service has returned to more cities in the United States, the company announced on Tuesday. Suspended as Uber Pool, the product is coming back under a new name, UberX Share.
The company confirmed in a blog post that UberX Share is now available in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Portland, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh. Uber Pool was indefinitely suspended in the U.S. and Canada in March 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Uber reintroduced the service as UberX Share last November and in a limited capacity, making it initially available in Miami, Florida. “At Uber, we know affordability is important to making transportation more accessible for more people – especially in the current economic climate,” Uber SVP of Mobility and Business Operations Andrew Macdonald said.
The product’s new name also comes with changes to how Uber Pool was implemented. In a screenshot provided in the announcement post, it is confirmed that UberX Share riders can only request one seat. Uber Pool previously allowed passengers to request up to two seats in a single carpool.
Uber also says UberX Share rides will provide passengers with up to a 20 percent upfront discount. The revamped carpool product is also meant to only add “no more than 8 minutes” of travel time compared to individual UberX rides by matching passengers who are heading in the same direction. The official FAQ page indicates there should only be two co-riders at a time in a vehicle, but the app may look for another UberX Share match if one passenger is dropped off before the other.
Policies in shared rides were also made more lenient with the rollout of UberX Share this week. Uber says riders can now take the front seat, but choosing the back seat is still recommended: “to give your driver some space.” Face masks are also optional, except for cities where there are still mask mandates for rideshare trips.
UberX Share will be available in more cities in the U.S. in the summer. Lyft, meanwhile, brought back its Lyft Shared rides in early May.
Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash
