Commuter service uberHOP launches in Toronto, Seattle

For $5, you can get to and from work sharing an Uber ride with up to five other passengers

Ride-hailing behemoth Uber announced today that it’s bringing its commuter service uberHOP to Toronto. The service just launched in Seattle last week.

Like uberPOOL on steroids, uberHOP is designed to pick up and drop off up to six passengers during commuting hours. In order to make this work, the car service is making itself less like a taxi and more like a bus in that the passengers need to walk to the uberHOP meeting point instead of waiting for the car to pull to their curb. And the uberHOP destination is a single spot centrally located in the financial district, so then you have a few more minutes of walking to your place of work.

The service costs passengers a flat $5 fee and operates only during the busiest commuter hours: weekday mornings from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and evenings from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

“With uberHOP, we hope that Torontonians will rely more on ridesharing and less on their personal vehicles to help reduce traffic congestion in our city” said Uber in a statement.

For now, Uber will be offering uberHOP rides to the financial district from four neighborhoods: Liberty Village, Fort York, City Place, and Distillery District. Uber considers this a pilot launch, as they’re still testing routes for efficiency as well as customer demand.

Uber has been all over the news in the past week, for better or worse.

After a federal judge ruled that anyone who has ever driven for Uber in California, or almost 160,000 drivers, could join a class-action suit against the company, drivers started seeing updated agreements in their apps requiring them to resolve disputes in private arbitration. No one could continue driving for Uber until signing the updated agreement, which Shannon Liss-Riordan (the attorney leading the class-action suit) believes is illegal.

In more positive news for the company, Uber released its own survey data (sourced through a paid third-party firm) saying 81 percent of Uber drivers are satisfied with the overall experience of Uber. And the service recently scored a victory in Southeast Asia, where the most populous city (Jakarta, Indonesia) opened up the doors for Uber its competitors to operate.

Finally, inside sources told the New York Times that Uber is laying off about 20 people in its policy and communications department, a big move after the company hired Rachel Whetstone, formerly a public relations head for Google. Image is crucial to a company as public as Uber, which is today’s most highly valued private company by a significant margin.