Uber reportedly planning ride-sharing services for bus and mini-vans in India

Uber is taking an all guns blazing approach to take on rival Ola in the Indian ride-hailing segment. So, after, taxis, bikes and carpooling services, the American tech giant is all set to launch ride-hailing service for buses and mini-vans, dubbed as ‘Uber Everything’, reports Livemint.

The new pooling service will apparently start as a pilot overseen by Uber’s India technical centre in Bangalore.

India has come to the forefront in Uber’s global plans post its merger in the Chinese market with Didi Chuxing. A person aware of the developments told Livemint that India poses diverse “mobility challenges”, and “will drive Uber’s innovations” on account of that.

However, this isn’t the first time Uber has come up with bus oriented services. The bus service is part of Uber’s global initiative, also called Uber Everything, which aims to offer rides on anything that carries people from Point A to Point B.

Notably, the company’s UberHop that functions pretty much like a scheduled bus service has been hugely popular in several regions it was introduced.

In India, however, it won’t be an easy task as it would add to the challenge of local administrations that currently regulate both private and state-owned bus services offering rides within cities.

Earlier also, the company faced a lot of issues with Karnataka Government when it piloted its ride-hailing service for bikes — UberMoto. The government termed the service as illegal and asked users not to use such service and the company had to shut down the service there then.

Uber is leaving no stones unturned to capture Indian market away from Ola. With subsidized rides and customized products, the US cab aggregator recently announced its new web service, using which, users can call a cab from the website itself, without the need of a mobile app.