Uber Introduces New Eco-Friendly Features to App — What Are They For?

Uber will soon become more eco-friendly with its new app features.

The popular ride-hailing company recently introduced a host of new features aimed at encouraging customers toward environmentally friendly choices to achieve its sustainability goals.

Uber promised to become carbon neutral in the US and Europe by 2030 and achieve the same worldwide by 2040, three years ago, per its Sustainability page.

Uber Eco-Friendly Features Background Details

Uber, in its recent announcement, revealed a handful of features that would make it easier for customers to go green and decrease the carbon footprint the company and humanity leave every time they use the company's services.

According to Uber, these small changes to its app will add up towards achieving one of the many steps people can take towards zero-emissions mobility and "building sustainability into Uber's core user experience" across its global platform.

True to Uber's words, the eco-friendly features it is adding to its app do help decrease the company's carbon footprint - it ranges from using eco-friendly routes to using green packaging on deliveries ordered through Uber Eats. Of the eight features the company is adding, six are under its main ride-hailing service, while the remaining two are under Uber Eats.

The Verge mentioned that Uber is already rolling out some of these features worldwide as of press time, while some are not ready for a global release yet. As such, customers may want to check their app occasionally to see if they got the feature.

Uber's New Eco-Friendly Features

Let's start with the eco-friendly features it is adding to its ride-hailing service. Uber will soon allow customers to see how much greenhouse gas emissions they avoided when choosing Green and Comfort Electric rides.

It will also lower fares for customers and riders, along with exclusive access to dedicated pickup zones in preferred locations when choosing Uber Comfort Electric or Uber Green for traveling from the airport.

Uber also decided to expand its Uber Carshare offering to allow customers to share the car they borrowed from the company to increase efficiency and contribute to more livable neighborhoods. For those unaware, Uber's Carshare offering allows customers to borrow a car when they need one if they don't own one.

Additionally, the company said it is building smart charging features into the Uber Driver app to help drivers determine when and where they should charge and provide them with other information to save them as much time and money as possible, such as charging prices and time, as well as traffic.

Uber also updated its mapping algorithms to determine eco-friendly routes by including factors such as elevation and the amount of stopping & starting at red lights. The company expects to avoid more than 9,800 metric tons of Carbon dioxide in a few months after the feature hits its Uber Driver app.

Last but not least is Uber's expansion of UberX Share, Uber Bikes, and Uber Green, which could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As for Uber Eats, the company added a feature that lets customers in select cities know if a restaurant uses recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging, which could further help reduce unnecessary packaging waste.

Lastly, the company promises to eliminate emissions on all Uber Eats deliveries globally by 2040 and end all unnecessary plastic waste from deliveries by 2030 to achieve its sustainability goals. It is partnering with leaders in e-mobility and charging, such as Cooltra, Human Forest, Zoomo, Gogoro, and Gachaco, to encourage and increase car-free deliveries.