Uber Bike is coming to San Francisco next week thanks to a new partnership between Uber and JUMP, a company which operates fleets of electric bikes in various cities that people can share. Uber Bike will be a piloted program within the city and will be the first location to receive the service, with a total of 250 different JUMP e bikes that anyone can rent for a period of time.
Uber users in San Francisco will have their first opportunity to reserve a bike next week though at the moment it isn’t mentioned when exactly the service will go live. Users won’t have to install a second app however, and instead will be able to open up the regular Uber ridesharing app where they’ll find a selection of the bikes that are available, and once reserved will simply need to head to its location and pick up the bike for the duration of time selected. It isn’t mentioned whether or not users will actually have varied times with which they can reserve a bike, and there are still a few unknown details such as how much it will cost to reserve one and whether or not riders will have to take the bike back to the same exact location.
The bikes will have a 30-mile range, which is essentially the distance the rider would be able to travel before the battery on the bike dies and needs to be recharged. Taking this into consideration the bike would really only have a 15-mile range if someone were to ride exactly that amount away from the station it was picked up at and then needed to get back. Right now there are no mentioned plans to open Uber Bike in other locations, and may not be at least for the duration of the contract that JUMP has with San Francisco. It is noted though that Uber is planning to work with JUMP for the length of the contract, which is reportedly 18 months, so for at least that amount of time Uber Bike will be available in San Francisco. While 250 bikes may not seem like a lot for a larger city, it’s possible that JUMP could be allowed to add another 250 bikes to its fleet after nine months of the contract has been fulfilled.