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Uber and Arrival unveil new ride-sharing electric car

Electric car brand Arrival has collaborated with Uber to create a new, low-carbon vehicle designed with ride-sharing in mind.

Let’s face it, whether you’re for or against ride-sharing services such as Uber and Bolt, they are undoubtably here to stay.

Popular in cities, ride-sharing services can be a more environmentally efficient and cost-effective way to get around – especially late at night after a few too many cocktails. Though Uber has run into trouble with its lack of employee rights and benefits in the past, the company has since been forced to change course, at least here in the UK.

Now, in collaboration with electric car company Arrival, Uber has unveiled a new vehicle design that is low carbon, minimal, and is built specifically to cater for shared travel rides.

Currently an alpha prototype, Arrival says it is fully working and is meant to be the ideal car for Uber drivers.

It features a one-box-style design, coupled with a squared back-end and fancy, crossed wheel patterns. Not too shabby.

Arrival also explained that it wanted to create something β€˜super minimal’ and sleek, no doubt to help boost the public profile of electric cars and continue to push their reputation outside of a specific, niche market.

The seating area is particularly spacious, offering twice as much leg-room as an average car of the same length. Arrival even claims you’ve more room to move about than a Rolls Royce. Who needs luxury, eh?

Tom Elvidge, employee at Arrival, says that the β€˜overall footprint of the whole car is the same as the Volkswagen Golf’. The vehicle is complete with a singular front passenger seat that can be folded or moved forward, and the boot can hold two large suitcases and several small bags.

You’ll be laughing with how much storage you can use here – that spontaneous journey to Gatwick never felt so breezy, am I right?

If you’re the driver, you’ll have access to all the car’s smart controls via a touchscreen display, with easy-to-use identification tools for both you and any passengers. Handy.

Arrival developed this prototype in six months, and is part of a larger plan to create an electric collection of car models that can be utilised by Uber. We could be seeing the company’s overall carbon footprint drop significantly soon, which is good for both the brand’s image and the planet.

The prototype will be tested at the beginning of next year to gather additional feedback, before entering full scale production. We’ll see you on the roads, then, or at two in the morning outside a club trying to share an Uber ride. Either works.

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