Uber on Thursday launched a ride-pooling service in New York. The service, called UberPool, is available at New York airports as well as throughout the city's boroughs.
UberPool is available in New York on Apple’s iOS smartphone platform and will be on the Android platform on Dec. 8.
Users of the Uber app can opt for ride-sharing with another customer making a similar trip (closeby starting and ending points). Uber allows two passengers per ride request, meaning that UberPool can take as many as four passengers per shared trip.
The company launched UberPool in the San Francisco Bay Area in September and added it in Paris last month.
New York, like other cities, has been a contentious battleground between taxicabs and newer service providers such as Uber. That competition was ratcheted up earlier this year when Uber tapped ex-New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission deputy Ashwini Chhabra to help the company navigate regulatory issues.
San Francisco-based Uber, which debuted in its home city in 2010, started operations in New York the following year. The company, which competes against other ride-hailing services like Lyft and Sidecar as well as local cabs, said in June that it had completed a $1.2 billion funding round that valued the 5-year-old company at a minimum of $17 billion.