Lyft takes on Uber Black with a new luxury car service

By Trevor Mogg May 25, 2017

Lyft — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’ve ever wanted to roll up to a special event in style, you’ve always had options. In more recent years, Uber gave riders even more choice with the launch of Uber Black, and now Lyft is joining the party with its own version of luxury transport, called, would you believe, Lyft Lux.

Lyft Lux is one level above Lyft Premier, another comfy ride that the company introduced last year. It comes in two flavors: Lux — “our most luxurious ride experience: a black car piloted by a top driver,” and Lyft Lux SUV — “all the amenities of Lyft Lux, in a more spacious black SUV that seats six.”

The San Francisco-based Uber rival is targeting its new service at folks attending formal functions, business meetings, and group events like weddings, introducing it first in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley, California. Other cities are said to be “coming soon.”

Request a Lux vehicle — now the priciest of all of its ride options — and you can expect an ultra high-end sedan or SUV (such as a BMW 5-series, Cadillac Escalade, or Lexus LS) with a black exterior and leather or leather-like seats, while a Lux SUV will guarantee riders an ultra high-end SUV (such as a Cadillac Escalade, BMW X5, or Lincoln Navigator), complete with a black exterior and leather or leather-like seats. The slightly cheaper Premier service, which launched in 2016, matches riders with a high-end sedan or SUV (such as a BMW X3, GMC Yukon Denali, or Lexus ES) featuring the apparently all-important leather or leather-like seats.

By way of comparison, the Uber Black service offers high-end vehicles such as the BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XF, and Mercedes-Benz S-Class, together with a driver who you can expect will dress to impress. And yes, they’ll have a black leather interior, too. Or leather-like.

As for Lyft drivers, the new service offers the chance to earn between 3 and 5 times the fare of regular Lyft rides, or between 1.5 and 2 times the fare of Lyft Premier rides, a Lyft spokesperson told Digital Trends.

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Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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