Uber’s new service will charge you more for a quiet ride and extra space

As the most popular ride-hailing service in the world, Uber has quite a job at its hands when it comes to ensuring that its customers remain satisfied with the application and continue to use it eagerly in their daily lives. This can be the only reason for why the company has decided to launch a brand new category of ride that is geared towards “an effort to provide riders with more options to elevate their riding experience on a day-to-day basis.”

Understandably called Uber Comfort, the new service introduces a set of features that are aimed at elevating your experience as an Uber passenger. However, some of these features are so mundane that they are bound to make even the most jaded of Uber fans roll their eyes at the prospect of having to open their wallets wider for something like that.

For starters, Uber has laid out a few requirements that every Uber Comfort driver and vehicle must fulfill. The drivers must maintain a rating of 4.85 or higher, and their vehicles must be new, no more than five years old, along with having more space than UberX vehicles.

So far, it appears that the company is simply doing what it has promised to do in its service i.e. make you feel as comfortable as possible. That’s fair enough, but it’s the other features that boggle the mind.

According to the announcement blog post on Uber’s website, “You can request your ideal temperature in advance and let your drivers know when you’re looking for a quiet ride so you can stay comfortable on the road.”

Why would anyone choose Uber Comfort for the pleasure of getting your driver to change the vehicle’s temperature to desirable levels or ask for some quiet time when you can basically do that with UberX (or any other ride category for that matter) simply by asking him to do so?

It doesn’t really make sense, and it’s doubtful if the service is going to catch on with the masses as a result, especially when it’s an immense 30% more expensive than UberX; a promotional image showed that the same ride that costs $23.97 in UberX will cost you $31.16 with Uber Comfort.

One really has to wonder what Uber was thinking here.