Uber’s Breathalyzer Kiosk Offers a Free Ride Home (If You’re Drunk Enough)
A marketing stunt by Uber’s Toronto-based team appears to be going down well with the folk there, but hey, it involves free rides, so what’s not to like?
In an effort to highlight its safety credentials, the ride-sharing company installed a so-called ‘Uber Safe kiosk’ on one of the city’s streets. Late-night revelers passing by the kiosk on their way home could blow into the machine’s breathalyzer and, if they were sloshed enough, get a free ride home courtesy of Uber.
Related: Uber goes on hiring spree for its self-driving car project
In the video that goes with its campaign, Uber notes that drunk driving accidents triple after midnight. “You drink, we drive,” the message on the kiosk reads, adding, “Blow here for a ride on us.”
There’s a chance more of the machines will start appearing in the drinking districts of other cities where Uber operates, though such a service would be unlikely to remain free for too long. But for now at least, the San Francisco-based company is using it primarily as a way of promoting its service.
The company’s marketing team clearly enjoys coming up with novel ideas to grab the headlines – in 2013 it teamed up with Home Depot to deliver Christmas trees direct to homes, and before that it offered on-demand ice cream trucks in several cities.
As for its latest stunt, it’s not clear how Uber drivers will take to having pie-eyed passengers stumbling into the back of their vehicle. They’d better have some very high quality cleaning products in the trunk, that’s all we can say.
[Source: Uber]
