Ola has launched two features to its app-based cab booking where it will notify users in real-time when peak pricing drops on a particular ride that they’re booking and when a cab is available. The second feature lets users track their booked ride through rich push notifications. The first ‘just in time’ feature will analyse a user’s cab preference and in case cabs are not available, the user will get a notification when one is, even if the user closes the Ola app. On tapping the notification, the user can complete their booking. For peak pricing, the app will notify the user 15 minutes after the user has not completed their booking. In rich notifications, the user will see driver photo, contact and car details, which will be updated with the driver’s ETA and user boarding status. On boarding the cab, the user will see the emergency SOS button in the notification itself, which can be used to send user CRN, user name, location, location of alert, cab and driver details. Note that Uber partially implements these features: on booking a cab, the user is notified of a cab being booked, the cab’s ETA, when the cab is 1 minute away and arriving and Uber provides a timeframe of up to 30 minutes for surge pricing, as and when surge pricing is dropped for a particular location. However, Ola’s cab details and SOS button in notifications are the most interesting, given that multiple times, users need to close and reopen…
