Uber now lets you take trips with friend groups: How it works

Ride-hailing platform Uber on Tuesday announced a new feature — ‘Group Rides’ in India, which will allow sharing of rides with up to three friends when headed to a common destination. Group rides will offer users the option to save up to 30 per cent of their fare, depending on the number of friends they split it with. The new feature is similar to UberPOOL, which allowed passengers to carpool with other passengers up to a particular cab category’s maximum passenger limit but was discontinued after the pandemic in 2020.

“With Group Rides we are offering customers the option to save more while they are riding with people they know. Not only do riders save money and arrive at the common destination together, [but] they also do the good deed of reducing vehicles on the road by getting more butts in fewer cars,” Nitish Bhushan, Director of Central Operations, Uber India, said in a statement.

How to book a Uber Group Ride

To book the Group Ride, users will need to tap the Group Ride icon in the updated Uber app then begin a request for a Group Rides, and review the booking details in the app. Now, invite friends to join the ride by sending them a link to the trip then allow friends to add their own stops.

The new feature will allow users to add their friends to their Uber rides by sharing details of the ride through messaging apps. Upon joining the journey, the friends would have the option to add their own pickup locations, which would get updated on the ride. The company said that the feature also aims to decongest roads by reducing the need for individual vehicles when groups of friends or colleagues or relatives are headed towards the same destination.

According to the company, the new Group Rides feature ensures the driver’s earnings aren’t impacted negatively, as they would continue to receive the same amount according to the route they take, as they would in an Uber Go or Uber Premier ride.

— Written with inputs from IANS