Uber hopes its new video game will make you want to be an Uber driver

The last time I went to Barcade, the Brooklyn bar where the walls are lined with vintage video games that are older than most of the craft beer-drinking brahs who play them, I watched four twentysomething dudes play the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game until they made it to the final level and beat Shredder. I've never seen anyone more excited about a real-life accomplishment, let alone something that happened to a two-dimensional turtle. I saw one of the guys on the subway a few days later and he introduced himself as Donatello, which is exactly the kind of video game-fueled enthusiasm that Uber wants to see.

That's right. Uber has just released UberDRIVE, a game for iPhones that gives players the chance to experience what it's like to be an Uber driver and – just maybe – it will inspire them to actually become one. The game is a lot like being an Uber driver, without worrying that someone is going to barf in the back of your car. As a virtual Uber employee, you pick up passengers and deliver them to their destinations within San Francisco (the only city that is currently playable within the game), earning points by accepting "trip requests" and by selecting the best possible route. And as your score increases, so do your benefits: you can unlock slicker cars and different areas of the city.

But Uber is looking at the app not just as a game, but as a tool for both current drivers and prospective ones. In a blog post that announced the game's release, Uber wrote:

UberDRIVE was designed as a fun and engaging resource for our driver-partners to hone their navigation skills if they choose to. It’s also a great way for prospective drivers to experience firsthand what it’s like to drive with Uber –– there are links to sign up and start the screening process from directly within the game.

As the New York Times pointed out, if the game is a huge success (and I suppose that success would be linked to how many people not only download the game, but continue to engage with it), then Uber can pat its own back and add additional Google Maps-powered cities for its virtual drivers to navigate. If it sucks, then it's really not a big deal. The game was designed by senior product manager Mike Truong as a side project.

It looks pretty good so far, I guess, but when do the drivers get to fight Shredder?