Uber will now bring you food and run your errands
Uber wants to be more than just your driver. Uber wants to drive you around, sure, but it also wants to bring you food when you're hungry and return your things to the post office when you regret an online purchase. We'd be lying if we said we hadn't fantasized about this.
Uber launched its food delivery system UberEATS in San Francisco and Austin this week, and more cities will be added soon. The app is already running in limited ranges within Barcelona, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Toronto. With the service, Uber pairs with select local restaurants to offer a curated and regularly-changing menu that gets food to customers in 10 minutes or less.
In places where UberEATS is operating, the regular Uber app has a new interface that more prominently features the EATS service with a button at the top of the home screen. In an email to Road Warrior Voices, an Uber spokesperson said:
"The layout separates RIDES from EATS and creates a more seamless, intuitive experience across services. We are always experimenting to find new, creative ways to make the Uber app more user friendly.”
Uber is definitely angling to be everything you ever wanted in an boyfriend app. Not only will it bring you food, but in select places, Uber will also run your errands. Since August 13, Uber has been running a new promotion called UberRETURNS, operating solely in Manhattan below 110 Street. UberRETURNS goes to all the places you hate the most, including the Post Office, FedEx and UPS. For $4 per pickup, a driver will collect whatever you ordered online and want to return, along with the return label and packaging, and take care of sending it off for you. If you happen to be a freelance writer who rarely leaves home and therefore has had a $78 dollar dress from Everlane sitting on your coffee table for weeks, you'll realize this is an extremely good deal.
UberRETURNS limits its services to anything that a bike messenger could reasonably carry. (e.g. boots and coffee makers are fine, while plasma TVs are not.) Meanwhile, you can track your returns in real time on the Uber app.
Uber also told us, "Not to worry if [the box is] torn, our couriers can tape it right up." Swoon.
UberRETURNS is part of a bigger program called UberRUSH, a delivery/messenger service the company has been piloting in New York, according to the Uber spokesperson, and may roll out elsewhere soon. With UberRUSH, users will be able to mail or ship out anything they want, regardless of whether it's a return.
An anonymous tipster tells us Uber's also a really good kisser.