You’ve seen popular celebrities promote platforms like Waymo and WeRide, and while those offer impressive benefits, for the city of Peoria in Illinois, a two-hour drive from Chicago, it’s goodbye WeRide, and hello completely to Lyft and Uber. That doesn’t mean Uber couldn’t ply the roads here, since that would be odd, but they’re simply controlling competition.
Peoria entered into a deal with Lyft and Uber, which actually started late last month. In a city council meeting held last November 18th, Chris Hallett, the neighborhood and human services director, explained that WeRide has been costly and ineffective for the city.
Similar to Waymo, WeRide is a leading, commercial-stage global company that develops autonomous driving technologies, branding them in tiers, specifically from Level 2 to Level 4. The vehicles of WeRide could carry up to eight people to various destinations at a time. Usually, a WeRide ride costs $2 for each trip or less for eligible passengers.
The city council has decided to create a partnership with Uber, Lyft, and other related ridesharing services to provide comprehensive transportation for the city’s residents and offer discounted rides in the town. However, the discounted rides would just be for one passenger at a time. There will be up to $15 discount on rides, but passengers must pay the first $1 and $2 regardless of the ride price.
Considering those new offers, it’s really the high costs that Peoria decried, with the city saying that there are instances where the costs go up to around $142 per trip per individual. He added that WeRide, despite the high prices, only covers a tiny area of the city, and passengers are being pressured to schedule in advance. From those testimonies, it’s clearly not the perfect choice.
With Peoria’s new partnership with Uber and Lyft, rides around town would be cheaper, costing only around $15 per trip, and there’s no need to schedule in advance, just like scheduling for a doctor’s appointment. Plus, these two big ridesharing apps will cater to the entire city.
“We believe all these things will provide an increased user experience,” the authorities stated. They voted in favor of ending WeRide soon, all of them, also approving funds to develop new software for this program. However, the changes are still in the planning stage. Not all details have been set in motion. The citizens could see these changes taking effect January the earlier, or if not, maybe February the following year.
The Peoria council has clarified, though, that WeRide won’t get cancelled until the new system is completely ready to get implemented.
Comments from the members of the council are uplifting, saying, “So we’re going to be saving a lot of money, and we’re going to have better service and more reliable service for our riders, right? That’s a win-win,” “It’s a little bit of a no-brainer,” and “I’ve been out of town and I’ve used Uber, and sometimes I love it, and sometimes I’m scared to death with who drives me to the airport. Everyone’s excited, so it’s all good, but … is it going to be just the typical Uber and Lyft drivers, who are great people but sometimes a little scary, or is it specialized transportation?”
The Peoria council is hopeful that this change will be such a significant enhancement for the city.