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UBER Celebrated Its 1 Billionth Trip

For Marvin, it was a regular Uber booking, and for Ara, a usual $7.38 (£5) ride from London Fields, Hackney, to Hoxton. What they didn’t know was that that particular uberX ride together was the company’s one billionth trip.
Uber 1 photo
Photo: Uber
Uber decided to celebrate this milestone by giving Marvin a one year’s worth of free rides and to Ara a vacation to whatever Uber city he prefers, paid by the San Francisco-based company.

The community where this special trip took place hasn’t been forgotten either, as Uber made a donation to Hackney Pirates. This organization develops the literacy, confidence, and perseverance of children between 9 and 12 years old.

Uber was founded in 2009 in San Francisco, California, by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, and beginning with 2012, the company expanded internationally. Even if it is a very popular service, there are some governments and taxi companies that question its legality by saying that Uber drivers are not licensed to drive taxicabs.

Throughout the years, a number of cases have been reported where taxi drivers physically abused Uber drivers. The last one happened only a month ago, when, during a protest against the popular ride-hailing service, a cab driver with 22 years of experience from Toronto, Canada, attacked an UberX vehicle with a passenger inside.

After pounding the driver’s side window with his fists, the taxi driver was dragged for about 40 feet on Toronto’s Bay Street, until the car slowed down and the cab driver released his hands from the door handles.

It seems that this “war” will never be over, and maybe now it will get even tougher, because we will see more and more UberXs on the streets, after Sidecar, one of the first to create an app for ride-destination tracking and a big name in the carpooling market, closed its shop after stating that it got harder and harder to keep up with Uber and Lyft.

On a more funny note, Uber sort of launched its first ambulance service last month, after an Indian woman delivered a baby in an UberX vehicle while being rushed to the hospital.
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