Uber appears determined not to stand down in the face of a regulatory challenge to its new shared ride service.
Days after the California Public Utilities Commission said that Uber’s car-pooling service violated state law, the company sent an email to users in the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday that promoted it.
“Want to make your commute even cheaper? Give UberPool a spin,” Uber wrote to users.
UberPool is a new car-pooling service that lets multiple people split the cost of a ride. That service can be up to 40 percent cheaper than UberX, the company said.
The same email also said Uber would be permanently dropping the price of its lower-cost UberX service by 15 percent, extending an earlier summer promotion. That makes it 40 percent cheaper than a taxi, according to Uber.
After Friday’s announcement from the CPUC, which also targeted similar services offered by Lyft and Sidecar, Uber said it had no immediate plans to suspend the service and would work with the CPUC to keep UberPool alive.
But for the company to now actively promote the service to users, suggests it may not give much credence to the CPUC’s action.
UberPool, Lyft’s Line and Sidecar’s Shared Rides for app-based car pooling are currently only available in San Francisco.
Uber did not immediately return a request for comment.