Almost everyone has heard of Uber, but have you heard of the awesome new app called UberEats? Chances are you haven’t yet discovered the amazing new features that have nothing to do with catching a ride with a taxi-like service. Instead, UberEats is a food ordering app, available in a select amount of cities.
What is UberEats?
Just like the original Uber app, UberEats allows you to place an order for food and have it delivered to you in a quick and efficient manner. Like the original, you can track the progress from the moment you place your order. The app gives you the option to browse hundreds of options for meals, and it lets users estimate the amount of time it will take to reach them.
In a world that likes everything to happen fast, this app is sure to make thousands of people happy. Currently, you can access UberEats in 12 cities including:
- Chicago
- Toronto, Canada
- Houston
- San Francisco
- Atlanta
- Austin
- Dallas
- Los Angeles
- Seattle
- Paris
- New York City
- Washington, D.C.
With UberEats, you can pick to have regular deliveries from the restaurants in your area. Most of the restaurants offer their entire menu to UberEat users. The option is available from the morning to 10 pm every day. When making your selection, you will be told how long it takes for the food to arrive at your location. It can range from 15 minutes to up to 45 minutes.
If you are hungry and want food right now, UberEats offers a service called Instant Delivery. These dishes are delivered close to 10 minutes after ordering. Each one of the 12 cities will have three to five dishes each day available for instant delivery. This service is not available all day. You can only select Instant Delivery from 11 am to 2 pm on weekdays.
Designing UberEats
As one could imagine, designing UberEats had some unique challenges for the app developers. One of the main issues is ensuring the UberEats drivers arrive at the restaurants at the right time. If they arrive too early, they are wasting their time, which means they are losing money. On the other hand, if they arrive late, the food could get cold or soggy.
One of the ways they altered the app was to separate the UberEats deliveries from the normal, Uber drivers. The drivers can opt to freely switch between modes. The process is quite simple. A hungry customer places an order at their favorite Japanese restaurant in Toronto. An UberEats drivers selects the route and drives to the restaurant. The driver picks up the food and delivers it to the customer.
UberEats Competition
Unlike the original Uber, UberEats has some competition right off the bat. They are competing with some other services such as Caviar, Postmates and Seamless. The amount of competition already there is going to make standing out from the crowd difficult.
The designers are working towards finding the right restaurants in each area. Instead of having a large list of hundreds of restaurants, they want to create the absolute best list in the area. By doing so, their users won’t have to be concerned about whether the food is going to be delicious. They will know it is good, quality food just because it is on the app. Currently, UberEats is a bit overwhelming in some cities, but this is expected to change as the app grows in popularity and the designs are altered.
UberEats is going to be one of the apps to watch in 2016. Since it is from the same designers as Uber, we are sure that they are going to find out a way to steam ahead of their competitors. Until then, order yourself a meal and discover why so many people love having food delivered.
