Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi with the Indian technology team
On the first day of his visit to India, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi explored the Uber Shuttle in Bengaluru along with members of the Uber technology team that builds the product for India and the world. Uber Shuttle complements the existing range of mobility options in India. These range from cars to two-wheelers and three-wheelers, and are part of the company’s multi-modal strategy. Uber’s engineering team has integrated tech features with Shuttle, similar to the other products available in the Uber app.
“This is the best time for Uber in India and I am so proud of the team here,” Khosrowshahi told Infosys co-founder and Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani during a fireside chat event on Thursday. “We are building high-capacity vehicles, like the Uber bus, that can travel longer distances.”
Late last year, Uber announced a partnership with the State Transport Department in Kolkata to launch a B2C ‘Uber Shuttle’ service in March 2024. Air-conditioned buses operating on predefined routes allow commuters to pre-book seats up to a week in advance. They can track the live location and route of the bus and know its expected arrival time. Other features of the service include cash payments and access to a 24×7 security line. Uber also plans to expand this service to Delhi and Hyderabad. Uber had launched its B2B offering, ‘Uber Corporate Shuttle’, in 2021.
Uber’s Indian technology story started in 2014 from a bungalow in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. Here, a handful of passionate engineers thought about what the future of technology in the transport sector would look like in the next ten years and beyond. The company’s teams and tech presence have since grown into two massive technology hubs in the country: one in Hyderabad and another in Bengaluru.
For example, to demonstrate how important India’s technology hubs are to Uber, the fintech teams here have developed systems to track and manage every dollar that flows into the platform around the world. The product engineering teams from Bengaluru designed technology from the ground up for essential products such as Uber Bus, micromobility, Uber Rent and Uber Lite. The Hyderabad-based Global Scaled Solutions team leads scaling operations for every product and service Uber rolls out across thousands of cities where the ridesharing company has a presence.
Last year, the company said Uber Eats consumers in the United States can use their Amazon Echo devices to track the status of their orders. This was made possible by Uber’s Eats Engineering team, based in Hyderabad.
More than a decade ago, the first Indian passenger hailed an Uber on the streets of Bengaluru, beginning a journey that quickly made the app a leading platform for passengers and drivers alike. Since then, Uber has transformed the Indian mobility landscape. The service now offers options like car, auto, motorcycle and bus rides through the app, available in 125 cities in India.
First print: February 23, 2024 | 12:21 pm IST