Uber adds ‘valet’ car rentals as it looks to rev rides

Uber adds ‘valet’ car rentals as it looks to rev rides

SAN FRANCISCO: Uber on Wednesday added valet delivery of rental cars as part of a suite of offerings as it aims to be "one-stop-shop“ for post-pandemic venturing out or dining in. As COVID-19 vaccines make it safer for people to move about, Uber aims to be a hub for summoning rides, running errands, or renting vehicles.

"Uber wants to be and is the one-stop shop for getting to where you need to be,“ Uber engineer Adib Roumani said on a video briefing with journalists. "That's really ultimately what we're after and we want to make sure that Uber speaks to all those use cases.“ Use of Uber's food delivery service, Eats, surged during the pandemic as people avoided going to stores or restaurants, while its core ride-share offering stalled.

"While much of the world stood still over the last year, our team at Uber has been reimagining how the world moves to help us return - not just to normal, but to a better normal,“ Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a blog post. Uber has been among the tech firms pitching in with vaccination efforts, and is seeing some "green shoots“ as more people get jabbed, according to executives.

The San