Global cab-hailing giant Uber has completed a billion rides in the South Asian region. It is now looking to leverage its voice-activated technology developed by its technology centres in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, to enable next billion rides, especially in the Indian market, as reported by TechCircle.
“We have already piloted human-assisted call-to-ride feature in India (Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Mumbai, and Delhi) and outside. But we want to see how we can apply new technology to natural language processing and we are doing a lot of experimentation on this,” said Apurva Dalal, Head of India Engineering, Uber.
She further added, “Not everyone is comfortable using the app. Aged relatives, grandparents and people who are not used to apps might be more comfortable placing calls.”
This feature will not only help the customers but also the cab drivers who find it difficult to process ride requests on the app when behind the wheels. Propelling towards the voice-operated booking will reduce a lot of burden for the older and less tech-savvy people who are not comfortable with the apps.
Uber competes with the homegrown cab-hailing startup Ola in India, and with its foray into the global market, Ola is now competing with Uber at a global scale.
As the battle for domination intensifies both the cab-hailing startups will look to leverage technology to provide better customer experience. Uber’s voice-enabled booking could help it regain the market it has lost to Ola.