Smartcar & Uber fight range anxiety & advance EV transition
To help reduce range anxiety among EV drivers, Smartcar has partnered with Uber Technologies. Using Smartcar’s API, Uber can integrate EV battery level data into its Driver app, allowing the 5% of Uber drivers who use EVs to accept rides within their battery range.
Smartcar & Uber: EV adoption for sustainable mobility
Software development company Smartcar was founded in 2015 and is based in Mountain View, California. Its APIs help integrate apps and services with vehicles.
Transport service Uber has become a verb. Since it started picking up passengers in 2010, the app has connected 42bn journeys.
Across the UK, Uber is committed to becoming a zero-emission mobility platform by 2030, but a survey on the Uber platform discovered that charging anxiety was a barrier to drivers who wanted to lease or purchase an EV. Further research also found that 40% of Uber customers, in the USA, had their first ride in an EV, showing that Uber is an unofficial ambassador for EVs.
Before COP28, Uber published its 2023 Climate Assessment and Performance Report, tracking its journey to net zero:
- In the US, Canada and Europe, over 74,000 zero emission vehicle (ZEV) drivers a month used Uber’s app in the third quarter of 2023. Twice as many as the year before
- Over the quarter, these ZEV drivers made 38m zero-emission trips via the Uber app
- Passenger carbon intensity was reduced by 25% in Europe and 11% across the US and Canada from 2021 to 2022.
Empowering EV adoption on the road
Smartcar is thrilled to partner with Uber to help drivers on their platform embrace EVs without the constraints of range anxiety.
“By obtaining EV battery data while putting driver consent and choice at the forefront, this partnership not only enhances the driver experience but also paves the way for a zero-emission Uber fleet by 2040,” said Sahas Katta, CEO and co-founder of Smartcar. “It’s exciting to see the innovative mobility experiences app developers are building with our APIs.”
“We’re excited about the early feedback from drivers,” said Michael Alexander, Uber’s Head of Sustainability Product. “Drivers who’ve used Battery-Aware Matching during initial testing tell us they’re less likely to run out of battery and less likely to cancel rides because they’re too long.”
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