Uber Electric Vehicles

Imagining what the Uber app would look like if they focused on electric vehicles

My Role

Passion Project

Duration

1 Month

Tools

Figma

Overview

The Problem

Uber needs to be more sustainable with the growing concerns of the climate. Cars produce a ton of CO2 into the world.

The Solution

Uber can order a service called Uber EV instead of UberX and Uber Black to encourage people to use electric vehicles.

Research

Cars are the primary form of transport for a lot of people. Transport accounts for around one-fifth of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (Source). 45.1% of that transport comes from cars. In order for the world to reduce carbon emissions, society needs to be less reliant on cars.

The idea of Uber is very innovative. One can order a car to bring you to your desired location just with a tap of a button. It revolutionized the car service industry and changed the way we think about apps. A big reason why it became so successful was because of its easy user experience with very few screens to order a car. As years have gone by, a lot of apps have copied Uber's UX navigation and is an indicator of how forward-thinking the app was.

There used to be two car services one can take on Uber: UberX and UberBlack. Because there are more drivers, UberX is more affordable and riders have less wait time to be picked up.

I wanted to see what it would be like if Uber promoted another car service: UberEV. Electric cars produce fewer carbon emissions than cars and helps the environment even more. While you can still order a UberX and UberBlack, I think it would help promote more drivers to get electric cars if there was an option on the app.

Since this was designed, Uber has come out with Uber Green.

Source

Design

As you'll notice the first two screens in this scenario are not changed. But the third screen does have some changes to it.

While doing this there are two types of customers Uber has to deal with: the drivers and the riders. If either customer group is unhappy, Uber will not work. From the rider's perspective, they will want to use the Uber EV service since it is the cheapest option and they get a lot of rewards for it as an extra incentive. Plus more environmentally conscious people might use Uber even more because of this feature.

From the driver's perspective, it might be tough at first to get them on board since it is the cheaper option. However, they might end up getting more riders in a long run because of the demand. It might encourage more drivers to get an electric car, which is the goal. I also added in the map that shows charging ports to help them out, if they are running low on electricity. Another goal is to make Uber EV replace UberX as the most common service on Uber. If that happens, then the world will have more electric vehicles on the road and the carbon emissions in the world will significantly go down.