Uber wants to take carpool on a different level, here’s how

Uber India wants the government to allow the company to incentivise people when they use their cars on the cab aggregator's platform to share rides with others. This option is prohibited by the Motor Vehicles Act.

Uber feels that this option will help reduce air pollution in New Delhi by cutting the number of duplicate journeys as the vehicle emissions produce 30% of the pollution in the capital, according to a report by the Observer Research Foundation.

If private car owners are able to register with Uber as drivers, all they have to do is input the time of their travel and route so that people in the vicinity going in same direction can hitch a ride.

"We would like to work with the government to make this a reality," Shweta Rajpal Kohli, Uber's India policy head, told ET.

Ride-Sharing, however, is different from Uber's carpooling service, which involves drivers of vehicles with commercial licences.

"Services like Uber can instantly match passengers headed in the same direction at the same time, thereby reducing the number of duplicate journeys," Kohli told ET.

"We would therefore be keen to support the government in every way possible and help use carpooling and ride-sharing as solutions to address the rising pollution and congestion in the city," he added.

Uber experimented with ride sharing in Bengaluru and in New Delhi in the first phase of the oddeven vehicle-plying rule last year, but the model known as UberCommute did not find many takers.The Motor Vehicles Act doesn't allow private vehicles to be used for hire or rewards.

According to sources, initial conversations with the Delhi government on the issue have been positive.