Monday, April 21, 2014

Lyft Launches In Salt Lake City

Smartphone driven, ridesharing service Lyft launched on Friday in Salt Lake City, as local officials took a stand that the service is operating illegally in the city. Lyft lets users summon a ride using their smartphone, via a peer-to-peer marketplace which lets nearly anyone provide rides to others all driven by Lyft's smartphone app. Lyft is offering up free rides for the next two weeks on the service. Lyft--along with fellow startups such as Uber and Sidecar--have been upending the business of local taxi and transportation services nationwide, offering up real time status updates on rides and faster service, however, without the level of regulation applied to other transportation providers. Neither Uber nor Sidecar have a regular presence in Utah, although Uber has occasionaly offered up its service in Park City during Sundance.