Uber starts carpool, may save riders 50%

US-based <g data-gr-id="19">Taxi hailing</g> app Uber on Monday launched a carpool service in India that could halve the price of a customer's ride. UberPOOL will be initially available in Bengaluru.

With this, the metropolis joins millions of commuters in San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Austin and Paris who have been using UberPOOL for months now to get around their cities more efficiently and reliably. The service will launch soon in beta in select cities in India, starting with Bengaluru, to gain insights from commuter adoption and usage, the company said in a statement.

"Since the early days of Uber in Bengaluru, we have been excited about the idea of providing everyone with easy access to transportation so reliable and affordable, that people can actually rethink car ownership. "Following the recent carpooling initiative by the Bengaluru Traffic Police to increase the utilisation of cars on the road, today, we are announcing our first step towards that vision with UberPOOL," it said.

With UberPOOL, commuters can share a ride and split the cost with another person who happens to be requesting a ride along a similar route. "Riders can save up to 50 per <g data-gr-id="24">cent,</g> while adding only a few minutes of time per trip. With the lower prices, people can move past car ownership, as taking Uber becomes less expensive than using and maintaining a personal vehicle. And that impact on congestion can be powerful," it said.

Bhavik Rathod, GM Bengaluru, Uber said, "India is a top global priority... Today, we are thrilled to announce that we will be bringing Uber's groundbreaking product UberPOOL to India very soon."