During weekday commuting hours in major U.S. cities, ride and delivery giant Uber is introducing cheap, fixed routes along busy corridors, a solution for the world where most people are more expensive every day.

Starting Wednesday, riders in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco will be able to book the Uberx Trip for 50% by using Uber’s new “Route Sharing” feature.

The company announced route share, along with other new features and discounts, aiming to help customers save money on rides and delivery on their annual Go-Get Event. The goal is to attract and maintain a loyal customer base who continues to use the Uber app despite external economic pressures.

Uber chief product officer Sachin Kansal said the commuter shuttle buses will be parked between presets every 20 minutes. He noted that every launch city will have dozens of routes—such as between Williamsburg and downtown New York. These routes are selected based on Uber's extensive data on popular travel patterns, with one or two additional stops to pick up and drop off other passengers. First, the rider only needs to share the route with the other two co-riders.

Riders can book seats anywhere from 7 days to 10 minutes before booking a pickup, and the app will give them instructions for turning to take them from the house to the corner.

Uber relies on the same underlying technology it uses for Uber sharing, and its shared riding products can get a 15% to 30% discount on Uberx ride costs by combining with others. Kansas told TechCrunch that Uber completes millions of shared trips a year and has been seeing more traction lately as riders look for more ways to save. Therefore, route sharing.

“Due to the size of our network, both on the consumer side and on the driver side, and on our core matching and market-based technology, it enables us to do similar things and put multiple people in the same car while creating efficiency and predictability for their commutes.”

Uber envisions a future route sharing eligibility for pre-tax commuter benefits. But, as the spokesperson pointed out, the company will need to find a way to match those trips to Uber XL vehicles. That's because only six seaters can meet the qualification requirements.

Potential route sharing progress will involve self-driving cars, especially in chaotic cities such as New York City, where no self-driving car companies are testing.

Uber has partnered with 18 AV companies and during the first-quarter yield delivery last week, the company reported that its annual growth rate has grown to 1.5 million liquidity and delivery of AV Trips on Uber Network.

One of Uber's latest AV partners is Volkswagen. The two plans work together to add an autonomous version of Volkswagen ID. The Buzz AD Electric Vehicle to Uber App - dedicated to shared rides - started in 2026 in Los Angeles.

“You can also see that we are able to bring the natural extension of route sharing to self-driving cars as well,” Kansas said. “(Route Sharing) has a big advantage for self-driving cars. It’s a very clear route, so it’s predictable pickups and drops.”

Other ways that frequent Uber users can save

Every event at Uber has a theme. Last year, it focused on ways to help people spend more time together. This year, economic uncertainty is imminent due to President Trump’s tariffs, massive layoffs across the tech community and the AI ​​we do all our jobs, and Uber focuses on saving costs for riders. In the process, Uber hopes to create predictable cash flow and stickiness to enable riders to interact with Uber.

"The voices we've heard are very loud lately, and it's clear that people feel very uncertain, people feel overwhelmed, people feel the prices in many different lives in life, and there's this need and desire to get more affordable options," Kansal said. "So everything we announce is focused on how we make life more affordable."

One of the new features of Uber is "Ride Passes", which riders can use to "a 1 hour window protection price per day on selected routes". There are two ways to do this. Riders can all pay $2.99 ​​to lock in prices on specific routes, or they can pay and purchase a prepaid trip. They can buy five, 10, 15 or 20 rides for a "deeper discount."

Price locked prices will be offered to drivers in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., starting Wednesday, the U.S. and other parts of Brazil follow. In the fall, price locks and prepaid passes will also be used for teen accounts.

On the Uber Eats side, Uber is partnering with Opentable and launching a feature called Dine Out that enables customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, the UK, Ireland and Australia to use Opentents Book Book Tables on the Uber App. When they keep (on the Uber app or on the Opentable app), they get discounts on rides to restaurants at Uber. Additionally, the hit members will soon be able to use their perspectives on Uber and Uber Eats – unlike Uber’s partnership with Delta Air Lines.

Such deals can save riders, especially when pricing takes effect during peak hours during peak demand periods. But for those who use Uber services regularly, they may be more beneficial. Prepaid packages are often cheaper due to pre-discounts, but riders can also overestimate how much they use.

Uber's pricing strategy is also not transparent, with some reports showing riders with prepaid credit or gift cards getting higher fare quotes than those who pay per ride. (Interestingly, the price of the ride jumps a few dollars whenever I switch from a payment method to a business card.)

A Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch that the price lock feature is based on the historical price of the trip, and the prepaid pass prevents price increases and adds discounts based on historical prices.