Pakistan Brings WiFi to Public Rickshaws!

The country’s largest commercial centers are set to see a new ‘brand’ of rickshaws as Ufone, Pakistan’s most famous cellular service, has taken the effort to redesign conventional rickshaws into silver, bolus-shaped vehicles. The idea of recreating the old blue & green rickshaws is part of a marketing campaign to promote Ufone’s mobile internet service. The GSM service company has previously done tremendous work on establishing brands through creative collaboration with talent agencies. The campaign is organized by Brand Activate while the vehicles are engineered by Ascend Engineering in Mansoora, Lahore.

The innovated form of rickshaw was first spotted in Lahore and just recently during 2015 auto show in Faisalabad, and it looks very close to Google self-drive car first prototype from front. It is rumored to include wifi-enabled services along with Global Positioning System navigation. Although the rickshaw campaign is yet to be launched, the buzz has already been created by elements in social media, even before Ufone could hold a press event to announce the vehicle’s features and functions.

Where people might believe that some Pakistani business tycoon is swindling customers by making DeLorean time machines, while tech lovers would believe Google is testing its autonomous car in Pakistan. Well no, we aren’t progressive enough yet to race through time and Google even doesn’t provide Street View here. However, looking at the timeline of Ufone rickshaws in this country, I believe this egg-shaped vehicle could be the future of public transport in Pakistan.

According to Karachi-based Brand Activate, the new rickshaws are smart and fully-equipped vehicles. Designed exclusively for Ufone, they released a sneak peak of the vehicles on the internet. The fleet of new rickshaws is now parked at the engineering compound and ‘ready for launch’ – as soon as Ufone calls for campaign. Rumors are circulating that the rickshaws will provide free WiFi and 3G connections to passengers, but we didn’t get any official word on these.

This Pakistani rickshaw may seem to have certain weaknesses in terms of design but it is firm and will not necessarily destabilize in case of an accident.Even if it does, there is not much that can be done as rickshaws cannot be expected to provide 100% safety on urban roads. However, one cannot deny that metal bending is essential to prevent the rickshaw from disassembling. The sheet used on the exterior, whether fiberglass or PVC plastic should be sealed in a way to prevent the lightweight vehicle from losing form. The vehicle has no doors, so you can term it the most unsafe vehicle on the road, especially considering the traffic congestion in Pakistan

But let’s not be hasty about what the rickshaw would do on roads, for Ufone has pulled off some of best marketing campaigns seen on television, billboards, radio and many other media platforms.

Savaree’s Android App Updated with New Design & Much-Needed Features

Pakistan’s home-grown car-pooling solution Savaree has been on a roll in the recent past. From announcing a web-based and even an off-the-web hotline service to announcing veteran entrepreneur & consultant Ahmed Khan as CEO, Savaree has come a long way since its inception at Lahore Civic Hackathon in 2014. And for the startup, forward seems the way to go in light of recent announcements.

Savaree recently published a new app for its Android users which comes with a completely redesigned interface and plenty of new features. A user is greeted by a minimal sign-on screen. Next up is a simple, tile-based menu with the major options of Rideshare, Events, Pick & Drop, and Savaree Cab. An info icon within each tile displays a quick tip about that specific menu entry which is a decent addition for first-time users.

A new user can sign-up for the service using Facebook to avoid the hassle of filling out extraneous fields, though they still have to verify their account via phone number before they can enjoy all the features offered by the app. Other methods of the verification of a user are by their National ID Card (NIC), their organizational e-mail account.

Trips can now be labelled as ‘Recurring’ and/or ‘Round-trip’ as well to avoid multiple entries from the same poster. Vehicle details and picture can now be added alongside posting a ride. Within a user’s personal profile, one can modify their preferences (allows smoking, pets, etc.), cover photo, and other details.

Other features introduced with the new app include the ability to chat with other users, and ‘Events’ which let users book or post a ride with people who are looking to attend the same event. Intuitively, such a feature should display a list of events around the user’s vicinity, but that’s not what’s happening in the app (although this selection can be done in the web-based UI). Another new feature is Savaree Cab, however we are not sure how exactly will that fit in with Savaree’s very own tagline of ‘It’s not a cab’.

Savaree promises to introduce community engagement features in the future which will provide incentives for users to join and provide a good service. iOS and Windows Phone versions of the app have also been a long time coming now, and cannot be announced at a better time.

Startups like Tripda which are backed by the e-commerce giant Rocket Internet are the main source of competition for Savaree in the local carpooling scene. Unlike the case of Rocket Internet’s other ventures in Pakistan, the fact that Savaree and Tripda were launched only months apart also doesn’t help either of them.