Uber Technologies Inc. formerly known as UberCab was found in the year 2009 by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick at San Francisco. The word Uber referred to super or topmost and the company launched its official mobile app in 2011. This online platform provides a number of services to the people and it also offers cabs at lowest fares.
Initially, the app allows the users to book a black luxury car that costs 1.5 times more than the traditional taxi fares. The company has operated the Uber software application that permits the user to request a car for transportation and for food delivery with the help of the Uber mobile application or the Uber mobile site. The Uber drivers will receive income by transporting passengers or delivering food to the customers. The drivers of Uber can use their own cars for transportation and drivers can also rent a car for signing up into the Uber driver.
Uber for passengers and drivers
Uber provides an inexpensive, convenient and safe taxi service to the riders and it allows the user to book a taxi with the single tap on the phone. The driver available nearer to the pickup location will reach the place within few minutes of time. The Uber also gives many offers and promo codes to the customer to improve the customer engagement with the app.
For drivers, Uber gives high pay and more incentives and it also allows the user to work in flexible time. A person can become an Uber driver by fulfilling all the needs regulated by the company. The minimum requirement is the person must minimum of 21 years old and must have a four door vehicle in a good condition.
Services provided by Uber
Uber provides different kinds of car services to its customers and the user can select the type of car based on their convenience. The various kinds of cabs offered by the Uber are Uber X, Uber XL, Uber Black, Uber Go and Uber SUV. The brief details of these cars are given below.
- Uber X
Uber X is one of the car services provided by Uber, which is the cheapest service among all other car services available to the people. These cars can accommodate four passengers not taking the Uber driver. Generally, Uber X cars are economic sedans and are not luxury cars. The drivers of this type of cars do not require any commercial driving licenses, but some of the drivers will have it. For this service, a general license and the age limit is the minimal requirement. The background verification and driving records of the driver will be checked before recruiting them. Uber X is cheaper when compared to the other normal cars available to the people.
- Uber XL
The cars under the category of Uber XL can have the place for six passengers including the Uber driver and the cars are largely entry-luxury cars. The fare of Uber XL is higher priced than the Uber X cars and the user can minimize the cost by traveling in a group, so the cost is split between the travelers. If the traveler wants to travel alone, then this type of service is highly expensive. The same requirements are needed to become an Uber driver and this service is highly suitable for the group of colleagues and friends and not suitable for the person who wants to ride at a low cost.
- Uber Black or Black Car
Uber Black is the service offered by Uber consists of high luxurious cars and the recent car models introduced on the market. This service is the high-end service provided for the passengers and this service is available in very few cities. The available car models are very luxurious and high end that includes leather interior and more. The driver of these cars should possess a commercial driving license, registration and insurance. It was generally used by the business professionals and cars allotted for the service are Mercedes, BMW and Audi.
- Uber Pool
Uber pool is another type of service given by Uber to reduce the transport fare for the user. This service allows the user to share their cab with any other person who is travelling to the same destination as the user. It helps in reducing the cost and it is useful while going around a town or city.
Autonomous car
An autonomous car or self-driving car is a type of car that has the ability to sense the environment and can navigate further without any human input. There are many cars have been developed in this category, but the cars allowed on the public roads are completely autonomous. All the vehicles need a human driver, in order to take the control of the vehicle at any moment.
This type of cars required different kinds of techniques like laser light, radar, odometry, computer vision and GPS to identify the surroundings. Advanced control systems are used to detect the suitable navigation paths and also to find the obstacles and signage. These have control systems, which have the potential to analyze the primary data to differentiate the types of cars on the road in order to plan a way to the destination.
Uber’s self-driving cars
Uber is actively working on the launch of new driverless cars to the public and initially, it experiments the autonomous cars in the streets of San Francisco. The research did not provide any positive outcomes and the car was moved faster when the signal showed the red light. But, the company answered that the error has occurred because of the human driver.
Otto is the self-driving truck company that has driven a semi-trailer truck loaded with beer successfully without any involvement of human driver. This company was acquired by Uber in the year 2016 for about six hundred seventy million dollars.
Uber has invested about five hundred million dollars for the expansion of its mapping program and currently, it depends upon the combination of mapping data and technology that includes its own technology along with the Google’s technique.
Driverless cars in San Francisco
Uber has brought back its driverless cars on the streets of San Francisco on the last of January 2017 and this time it is only for mapping the city. The self-driving function will be disabled in the cars and it is only used for mapping purpose of Uber.
In the December 2016, Uber attempted to launch its autonomous cars in San Francisco for passengers, but the attempt was failed because the Uber did not get any permission from the Government for testing the robotic cars. But, in the last time, the company has assured that the car was always driven by the human driver and all other self-driven circuits made to disable during the drive.
The autonomous cars have many benefits such as reduction in motor vehicle collision because of the human errors and also aggressive or distracted driving. From a survey, it was found that eighty one percent of road accidents have happened as the effect of human error and it can be controlled with help of computers.
Though these self-driving cars have many advantages, it has some disadvantages like security and safety issues. These cars are using GPS for their navigation and if there is any defect in the GPS device, then it will result in an accident. So, the self-driving cars are the forthcoming developments in the field of technology and if these cars are deployed successfully then it will create a revolution in the world.
Author Bio : Anand Rajendran is CEO and Co-Founder of Dectar apps, best PHP scripts development company located in India. Dectar is a part of Casperon Technologies a leading social and mobile development company which is Developing Taxi Dispatch Software. I’m a Tech geek, Digital marketing expert, Entrepreneur, and Atheist who loves to write everything about PHP Scripts and mobile application development. Cabily Script is a clone of Uber, which developed by the tech gigs of his company.
