After months of speculation and expectation from the Chennai crowd, for the launch of Uber, which launched in other cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi, its finally here. Uber has started testing its cars in Chennai, and we got to go on a drive today in two of those cars.
The most popular on-demand car service is very competitive when it comes to pricing and the way the entire service is designed to work in India. We got to ride on a Mercedes Benz E-Class and in our testing, the pick up times were less than 10 minutes.
Though the Uber app is available for everyone, the service is still under secret testing, only for selected few in the city. You will be able to sign-up, and check for the cabs that are around you, but you will not be able to book one, since it needs a verification code to be entered.
One you sign in into the app, the workflow is pretty simple. You just have to choose your pickup location and drop off location, and you will be immediately given the information about the driver who has agreed for the ride.
Once the ride is confirmed, all you need to do is to just wait for the cab to arrive. Jump right in, and walk off the cab at the destination. You will be charged automatically from the credit card that you mapped when signing up. This is one way Uber has put the bar on what kind of people can use their service.
Right now, in Chennai, the company has tied up with Bala Tourist Services, who undoubtedly have a good number of Mercedes cars in the city. As far as we see, there are currently eight cabs that has Uber in them in Chennai, and we heard that the company is scaling up really fast on the number of cabs that will be available in the weeks to come.
We went on a ride a couple of times and we should admit that we enjoyed the ride throughly. The cab drivers were sweet and we had no trouble in getting the cabs during our trip. Splitting the bill is one of the biggest feature that we thought should be coming in with Uber when it launches in Chennai, and boy they already have it for us.
Me and Swaathi shared a ride, and the splitting the bill was Uber easy. While we enjoyed using this feature on Uber, we noticed that you get charged an amount of ₹ 30 when you split the ride. Right now, this might be a bit of an issue, but when it comes to the overall pricing strategy that Uber is playing with, we think they might give other cab booking services run for their money.
Uber has also posted a blogpost about their arrival in Chennai and here’s what they quote:
Over the next few weeks, Uber will be in “secret testing mode” in Chennai; availability will be limited but we will be working hard to make more cars available whenever you want them and wherever you need them. Please do take a ride and share your experience with us on Twitter at @Uber_Chennai or email at support.chennai@uber.com.
Here are some screenshots from our recent ride with Uber:
