In line with our vision to reduce congestion and fill every empty seat–whether it’s a car or a bike on the road — we launched a pilot of uberMOTO in Bangalore on 4th March, 2016. Bikes on-demand is not new to the city of Bangalore – similar services have been provided by many startups for months before uberMOTO. However, after our launch, there was considerable speculation regarding the product’s legality. In the spirit of collaborating with the government, we have had extensive discussions with the relevant authorities over the past few days. Today, we have made some modifications to our ongoing pilot service with a commitment to operate within the existing framework.

To clarify, the uberMOTO service was launched to operate at cost only — effectively encouraging bikers to share the cost of a ride and eliminating the need for additional permits. Uber will also not charge any service fee for the period of this pilot. uberMOTO essentially encourages “bikepooling” and will help in decongesting city roads. After the pilot, Uber will prepare a key findings report addressing the viability of the product to augment Bangalore’s urban mobility needs, its impact on congestion and last mile connectivity. It is our hope that this product will cut travel time considerably and give people the option to ditch car travel for short distances.

We commend the Karnataka Government for reaffirming their commitment to create progressive regulations soon that prioritizes consumer choice, fosters innovation and helps improve the traffic situation in the city.

In just under a week of launch of uberMOTO, we received an overwhelming response from our riders who embraced the new way of travel that is faster and more affordable – supporting our collective cause to decongest the city’s traffic.