Uber sees Toronto as ideal for new car-pooling app

“At full adoption, it can take hundreds of thousands of cars off the road,” said Uber Canada general manager Ian Black during a meeting with Toronto Star’s editorial board on Monday.

“It takes some time to get there, but we are very much looking at rolling this out in Toronto in the near future,” he said. “We think Toronto is the perfect city and the perfect use case.”

Uber already operates taxi and limo services as well as UberX, where ordinary people are paid to drive passengers around in their own private vehicles.

Insurance officials have warned UberX drivers that they need commercial policies. Uber says it has a $5-million policy with AIG Canada to handle additional damages not covered by personal policies.

The City of Toronto has sought a permanent injunction to shut down all of Uber’s operations. A two-day court hearing was held earlier this month, but the judge has not issued his decision yet.

UberX prices are already cheaper than taxis, but an UberPool ride from Yonge and Eglinton to downtown would be $6 to $7, compared with $10 to $13 for UberX.

The company’s platform can track similar ride requests and link them together. The service is already operating in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In San Francisco, about half of all Uber rides are for the car-pooling service.

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