I don't think Uber can ever be eco-friendly, because my American-centric point of view is that anything which makes long-distance travel situations easier encourages long distance travel by lowering the barrier and the carbon footprint of long distance travel is inherently atrocious.
I, like almost all Americans, own a personal vehicle, so the only time I would use Uber is if I'm traveling a long distance. The carbon footprint of my Uber is a tiny tiny tiny fraction of the carbon footprint of my trip. I do things like buy carbon offsets with my plane ticket to try to balance this out, but I am not ignorant of the environmental impact of international travel.
That is fair, you are probably right. But the author is not making the claims, she is responding to claims made by Uber in the past.
Specifically:
>In 2015, Uber founder Travis Kalanick gave a TED talk in which he vowed the new rideshare business model would get “more people into fewer cars,” dramatically reduce air pollution and, as he put it, “reclaim our cities today.”
I, like almost all Americans, own a personal vehicle, so the only time I would use Uber is if I'm traveling a long distance. The carbon footprint of my Uber is a tiny tiny tiny fraction of the carbon footprint of my trip. I do things like buy carbon offsets with my plane ticket to try to balance this out, but I am not ignorant of the environmental impact of international travel.