BANGALORE: In Uber’s vision of the future, self-driving cars will whisk us everywhere, eliminating the need for its millions of human drivers.
By focusing on the large swath of people who cannot afford ride-hailing services, these startups are opening up a new front in the global battle to provide shared transportation services. In developed countries like the United States, Uber undercut the taxi industry and created new demand for rides by persuading tens of millions of customers to hop in a car with an ordinary driver summoned by an app.
“You wait for a car, and then they cancel,” said Nomita, a medical editor who works from home. “A rickshaw driver will refuse to take you because you are going in the wrong direction.” “You want it to be habit-forming for the customer,” said Anand Ayyadurai, Vogo’s co-founder and chief executive, who said costs would come down over time.
Yet Ather can make only about 500 scooters a month at its Bangalore factory. The company is lining up a manufacturing partner to vastly increase production, said Tarun Mehta, a co-founder of Ather and its chief executive.Bounce has raised US$18.9 million from venture firms such as Sequoia and Accel, according to corporate filings analyzed by the data firm Paper.vc, and it is raising an additional US$80 million.