Wired has a story about car service Uber rolling out UberEats in New York and Chicago, following what it calls successful tests in Los Angeles and Barcelona.
According to the story, "For this new feature, Uber partners with local restaurants, which offer one menu item per day to Uber customers ... The big difference from other app-based food delivery services is how quickly Uber says it will get you your grub: the company promises to use its mighty network of drivers to deliver your order in 10 minutes or less."
While getting around New York or Chicago in 10 minutes would seem to be an impossible task, Wired says that "the trick is, rather than waiting for customers to place an order, waiting for the restaurant to make the order, and then battling traffic to deliver the order - a process that can easily take 45 minutes - Uber drivers pick up batches of orders from participating restaurants in temperature controlled bags. Then they drive around as they always do, waiting to make a delivery to the nearest willing customer."
The driver gets a $3 delivery fee per order.
Jason Droege, who is described by the magazine as heading up "all of Uber’s so-called Uber Everything experiments," tells Wired that this move "is yet another way that Uber is flexing its muscles not just as a transportation powerhouse, but as a full-scale logistics company. 'We’re trying to build products at the intersection of where your lifestyle meets logistics,' Droege says."
According to the story, "For this new feature, Uber partners with local restaurants, which offer one menu item per day to Uber customers ... The big difference from other app-based food delivery services is how quickly Uber says it will get you your grub: the company promises to use its mighty network of drivers to deliver your order in 10 minutes or less."
While getting around New York or Chicago in 10 minutes would seem to be an impossible task, Wired says that "the trick is, rather than waiting for customers to place an order, waiting for the restaurant to make the order, and then battling traffic to deliver the order - a process that can easily take 45 minutes - Uber drivers pick up batches of orders from participating restaurants in temperature controlled bags. Then they drive around as they always do, waiting to make a delivery to the nearest willing customer."
The driver gets a $3 delivery fee per order.
Jason Droege, who is described by the magazine as heading up "all of Uber’s so-called Uber Everything experiments," tells Wired that this move "is yet another way that Uber is flexing its muscles not just as a transportation powerhouse, but as a full-scale logistics company. 'We’re trying to build products at the intersection of where your lifestyle meets logistics,' Droege says."
- KC's View:
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I am dubious. Sounds like a recipe for a lot of wasted food to me.
But when it comes to these kinds of innovations, I tend to give the companies the benefit of the doubt ... if only because I try desperately not to be guilty of epistemic closure.
Maybe this won't work. But if it does not, history suggests that the folks involved will learn something from the experience, something that can be put to work in developing future concepts that will.
