Uber X, Uber’s answer to a less pricey cab service, came out of its testing period for San Franciscans today,  the city that has become obsessed with mobile-hailing.

Uber is an alternative to cabs in a number of cities, starting with San Francisco. The company provides a fleet of town cars, which cab be hailed through a mobile app. The app will not only let you order your town-car with the push of a button, it will also show you where the cabs are located, and let you pay for the ride with a credit card on file.

As expected, however, the town cars cost a premium over the regular cabs available on the street. The company’s Uber X product, however, has all the same perks of the mobile app, but instead allows anyone with a car to sign up and give you rides around the city for the cost of a regular cab.

It seems, however, that the company is reducing the pricing of its “Black cars,” however, by 10 percent today as well.

Uber does well in San Francisco specifically because of how difficult it is to hail a cab here. In places like New York City, where the cab systems are very efficient, Uber has had a much rockier start. The city told cab drivers that they could be fined if they joined up with Uber, though the company and the city have seemed to smooth over the issue.

Uber and other ride-sharing companies such as Sidecar and Lyft have recently come under the scrutiny of lawmakers for their services. This is because in usual cab federations, you must have passed a licensing test to be a cab driver. In ride-share situations, however, the drivers are not certified and could create dangerous situations.

Filed under: VentureBeat

Categorised as: Chief Digital Officer | Digital Media | Feedster

Comments are disabled on this post