Uber wants you to make the green choice so it can go carbon neutral by 2030

Uber is introducing a number of new product features aimed at driving its customers towards greener options. The product features, unveiled at an event in London today, also aim to boost the company’s chances of reaching its sustainability goals, which are to go completely green by 2030 in North America and Europe and in all global markets by 2040. Has become carbon neutral.

Some of the new products aren’t ready for a global rollout, but the overall aim is to use its platform to encourage riders and drivers to make more eco-friendly decisions — even though much of Uber’s business depends on gas-guzzling vehicles. Are. Some of them include subtle hints, like new emissions notifications or better routing, while others will be more pressing, like reducing cooperation from partners (drivers, restaurants, etc.) who don’t technically work for Uber. .

One of the major announcements that came out of the event was the news that Uber Eats is going green. Along with its ridehailing business, the company claims its popular food delivery service will be completely carbon neutral globally by 2040. It’s an ambitious plan, given that it would require all 800,000 restaurants on the company’s delivery platform — everything from global fast-food franchises to tiny parentheaps — to also be carbon neutral.

Here’s a list of some of the new features Uber is announcing today:

Last year, Uber launched the Comfort Electric in a handful of cities, with the list growing steadily ever since. Only premium EVs, such as the Tesla, Polestar and Ford Mustang Mach-E, will be considered eligible for Comfort Electric Trip. (Sorry, Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt.)

It will sit alongside the company’s other EV product, Uber Green, which charges drivers an additional fee (typically $1) for using electric or hybrid vehicles. Uber announced today that Uber Green is also launching in Australia, bringing it to 140 cities globally.

Another new feature: When they open the app, customers using Uber’s EV-hailing products will see a notification telling them how much they avoided putting into the atmosphere. The company views this as positive reinforcement to encourage them to continue using these services.

Uber engineers have also rolled out a new feature that will better integrate charging information for EV drivers into Uber’s Driver app. When it debuts later this year, the new feature will use machine learning to suggest when and where drivers should charge while planning ahead on the road. It is based on uploading information about the driver’s EV to the Uber app. The app will also filter trip requests based on the driver’s battery level, hopefully making the charger experience more seamless.

The company is also developing a new product called Battery-Aware Matching, which filters ride requests based on the EV’s battery level. This way, drivers can take trips that end near a charger and avoid trips that are too long for their batteries. And in the near future, drivers will be able to use their app to initiate their charge, monitor its progress, and make payments. It’s unclear which vehicles will be eligible for the feature, as it will depend on some level of connectivity that would allow it to integrate, for example, the state of charge on the battery into Uber’s app.

Noting that much of Uber’s business revolves around airport trips, the company announced new “Green Curbs” for its EV drivers at participating airports, where customers can park their vehicle at a dedicated pickup area. can be found in And for drivers, Uber is offering discounted or occasionally free charging at airport charging stations.

Uber now says it has 60,000 drivers using electric vehicles in North America and Europe, with the majority of those drivers – 10,000 – working in London alone. The company previously announced that it plans to electrify its fleet in London by 2025.

Of course, switching the millions of people who drive for Uber to electric vehicles will be no easy task. RideWheel drivers are classified as independent contractors, and many use their personal cars for not just one but several gig economy companies. Uber can’t force all of its drivers to make the switch without jeopardizing their status as freelancers.

Also, despite lower fuel and maintenance costs, EVs tend to be more expensive than gas vehicles. That steep upfront cost can make it a challenge for many drivers, who typically operate with incredibly tight margins.

Uber is adding a new feature to Eats that will allow customers to search for restaurants that offer sustainable packaging. It will only be available in London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York City, San Francisco and Taipei to start with.

But it will take much more than sustainable packaging for Uber to credibly claim that it has de-carbonized its delivery business. The company’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, acknowledged in a blog post that Uber is working with the World Wildlife Fund to develop a toolkit of discounts, incentives and advocacy.

“We know we can’t do it alone and we have a lot to learn,” Khosrowshahi said, “especially when it comes to more sustainable packaging.”

Uber is rolling out several new updates aimed at reducing the need to own a car. More bikes will be offered on Uber’s app in Latin America thanks to a partnership with Tembici. (Uber has had a rocky relationship with bike-sharing services.)

In addition, the company is launching a car-sharing service again. (The company has experimented with car-sharing through partnerships with startups like GetAround, but never really stuck with it.) This time, Uber is partnering with Australian car-sharing to reintroduce car-sharing in that country. Is building up the acquisition of sharing service Car Next Door. , as well as Boston and Toronto.

The company’s rebranded carpooling service, UberX Share, is coming to more cities — even as rival Lyft turns its back on carpooling. It will be available in 18 cities in the US and more than 50 cities globally, making it one of the largest carpooling services in the world. The company claims that it has completely redesigned the underlying technology to improve the product so that drivers don’t hate it so much.

Of course, it’s good that Uber is making more efforts to make its eco-friendly products more attractive to its customers. But in the absence of strong legislation requiring drivers to switch to non-polluting vehicles, there’s really only so much a company can do. Fortunately, a bunch of governments have already done this.

Such a high rate of EV owners driving for Uber in London is because of the city’s strict clean-air laws. In 2020, the city implemented the Ultra-Low Emission Zone, in which vehicles are charged based on the amount of emissions they produce. There is nothing like it in any city in America. The closest is New York City’s congestion pricing plan, which is still struggling to take effect.

Other states have their own approach to forcing Uber to go electric. California adopted new rules in 2021 requiring ridesharing companies to electrify their fleets by 2030 — a few years before the state is expected to ban sales of new gas cars altogether. And New York City said it would do the same, requiring all for-hire vehicles to be electric by 2030.

The company is also working to persuade more of its drivers to switch from gas-powered vehicles to EVs. Uber recently announced that tens of thousands of drivers have signed up to rent Tesla vehicles through a partnership with car rental company Hertz. The partnership recently expanded to Canada, with Vancouver being the only city outside the US to receive the company’s EV service.