You may start to hear “¿A dónde quieres ir?” ("Where do you want to go?") more often in three U.S. cities.
Uber, the popular ride-sharing app, recently introduced a new service aimed at its Latino customers last week.
uberESPAÑol will give riders the option of selecting a Spanish-speaking driver. It is available for consumers in Phoenix, Tucson and San Diego.
“I’m very excited about this,” said San Diego Uber driver Yoana Teran. “You can see why Uber is doing this because it’s much needed in our community.”
The company says on its website that the new service is being offered due to the high demand from riders and its driver-partners.
"We have heard from riders and driver-partners alike–they’d like the Uber experience to reflect the multilingual aspects of these multicultural communities," said the company on its website.
Uber driver Teran said this makes a lot of sense.
“You go to so many places in this country where people speak Spanish, so it’s important to have drivers who can speak the same language and who are able to drive you from point A to B,” she said.
Riders can use a promotion code specific to each city to access the service.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos make up more than 40 percent of the population in Phoenix and Tucson and about one third of the population in San Diego. While a majority of U.S. Hispanics are proficient in English or speak it as a first language, Uber's new service is helpful not just to Spanish-speaking Latinos but to tourists and business travelers as well.
--Daniel Rodriguez
