Uber Eats
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Uber Eats dine-in option lets you pre-order your food
Uber Eats has a new option for those diners who want the ambiance of a restaurant but hate the wait. The company has unveiled a dine-in feature in some cities that lets customers pre-order food on the app and then eat at the restaurant, according to TechCrunch. And unlike most of Uber's services, the driver or the courier is cut out of the equation entirely. Diners order food on the app and arrange transportation to the restaurant themselves -- there's currently no option to link a ride with your food order. Diners pay with the Uber Eats app, and can add an optional tip. Uber Eats launched the dine-in feature back in November, and is currently testing it in Dallas, Austin, Tucson and San Diego, reported Eater.
Uber Elevate plans to deliver Big Macs by drone this summer
Move over, Uber Eats. Uber Elevate plans to deliver food via drone as early as this summer. To start, the service will be available in San Diego, and since Uber has been working closely with McDonalds, it will likely be optimized for things like Big Macs and fries.
Uber's first post-IPO earnings report shows another $1 billion lost
Uber's first earnings report as a public company shows that while its revenue is higher than last year; the company is still hemorrhaging money. Still, there's no doubt that the company is getting bigger. The company earned $3.1 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2019, a 20 percent increase from the same period last year. But its losses were considerable; the company reported a net loss of $1.1 billion.
Uber Eats may soon offer an unlimited delivery subscription
Paying for delivery is so passé, and Uber Eats knows it. Like Postmates, DoorDash and the UK's Deliveroo, which all offer unlimited food delivery subscriptions, Uber is set to offer a monthly $9.99 pass that includes free delivery from any restaurant at any time (although just to be clear, you've still got to pay for the food).
Uber files for its IPO and faces the past
Ten years after the company was founded, Uber is finally ready to go public. The company revealed its S-1 filing for an IPO this afternoon, and as such opened up more information to everyone about its finances and concerns going forward. Going through the document, a lot of those concerns involve the past, particularly in 2017 when a series of revelations about its corporate culture, treatment of drivers and passengers, and other misdeeds resulted in the exit of CEO Brian Kalanick. According to Uber, it has some 91 million monthly active users who've either taken a ride or received an Uber Eats delivery. That number came from Q4 of 2018, and is up 35 percent from the previous year, with some 3.9 million drivers, and 1.5 billion trips in the quarter. Uber also gave some insight on its self-driving car plans, saying "Along the way to a potential future autonomous vehicle world, we believe that there will be a long period of hybrid autonomy, in which autonomous vehicles will be deployed gradually against specific use cases while Drivers continue to serve most consumer demand." As usual for an S-1, the list of risks acknowledges everything that could go wrong for the company including increased regulation, drop in reputation or falling behind competitors. For Uber that includes not just the seedier aspects of its past mentioned above, but also the issue of how to try and achieve profitability while maintaining prices customers have come to expect and compensation that works for drivers. This is expected to be one of the biggest tech IPOs ever, and comes just a month after its main competitor Lyft listed its shares on the open market, revealing over 30 million riders and just under two million drivers.
Uber Eats improves order tracking so you can see where your pizza is
Uber Eats is rolling out a redesign and new features to help you track your meal from the second you tap the order button until it's on your plate or in front of you in the container (no judgment here). Improved tracking will help you monitor the whole process, including the restaurant preparing your order, your courier's route to the pickup and their route to your home or office.
Postmates cuts its delivery fee if you join a group order
A new feature from Postmates lets people who live close to each other score free food delivery. The popular food delivery app's new "Party" feature groups together restaurant orders from customers who live in the same neighborhood. Hungry patrons can choose from a selection of trending restaurants that appear under the "Postmates Party" tab. They then have five minutes to join the "party" by completing an order at one of the select restaurants.
Uber expands its Rewards program to all US cities
Since November, Uber users in nine US cities have been able to earn points and claim incentives through the company's loyalty program, Uber Rewards. Now, customers across the country can earn the ability to, say, jump the line of people waiting for rides home from the airport, which may frustrate everyone else just enough to get them to sign up.
