Skip to main content

Stuck on empty? Try Purple, a gas delivery service backed by the co-founder of Uber

Now you’ve done it. You pushed the tank too far, and after a daring game of roulette with the fuel gauge, you lost. The warning signs were there, clear as day, but you didn’t listen. “Just one more mile,” you said. Now what do you do?

Before the days of cellphones, you had two choices — plead with strangers for help or hoof it to the nearest gas station. In 2015, though, fueling up can be as simple as checking your Facebook or hailing an Uber.

Recommended Videos

Purple, an on-demand gas delivery service, set its roots in Los Angeles in May, and has since served some 15,000 customers. That’s 15,000 people saved from hauling heavy fuel cans or stalling at intersections, and it was all done through a free smartphone app. Available for Apple and Google devices, Purple lets you order, schedule, and pay for gas remotely, after which the company sends out a vehicle replenishment specialist to top you off.

“Convenience is the first motivation,” founder Bruno Uzzann told Business Insider. “Cars are more and more connected, and there is the vision that one day you won’t have to go to the gas station, or even order Purple. The car itself will automatically order gas. All the technical aspects are there.”

The majority of Purple’s customers have been wealthy car buyers driving luxury vehicles, generally centered around spendy areas like Beverley Hills, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood. The service has the potential to spread outside of the LA Metro area, though, and the firm has gained a powerful ally to help them do just that — Oscar Salazar, chief product and technology officer at Ride and Uber’s founding CTO.

Purple users have two choices for fuel: 87 octane for $3.79 a gallon 91 octane for $3.99 a gallon. Fuel is delivered in 10- or 15-gallon amounts, and can be scheduled to arrive within one hour or three hours. There are no transportation fees yet — Purple says it’s waiving the charges initially to inspire growth — but it will eventually costs $2.99 for a three-hour delivery and $5.99 for a one-hour delivery.

You don’t even have to be with the vehicle while it’s being filled, just make sure to leave that fuel door unlocked.

Andrew Hard
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Andrew first started writing in middle school and hasn't put the pen down since. Whether it's technology, music, sports, or…
Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs
2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time.  The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

Read more
Waymo faces questions about its use of onboard cameras for AI training, ads targeting
Two people exit a Waymo taxi.

In an iconic scene from the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, on-the-run Agent John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, struggles to walk through a mall as he’s targeted by a multitude of personalized ads from the likes of Lexus, Guinness and American Express, everytime hidden detectors identify his eyes.
It was clearly meant as a warning about a not-so-desirable dystopian future.
Yet, 23 years later that future is at least partlially here in the online world and threatens to spread to other areas of daily life which are increasingly ‘connected’, such as the inside of cars. And the new testing grounds, according to online security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, might very well be automated-driving vehicles, such as Waymo’s robotaxis.
On X, Wong unveiled an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy that suggests the California-based company is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including interior cameras, to train generative AI models and to offer targetted ads.
“Waymo may share data to improve and analyze its functionality and to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests,” the Waymo’s unreleased privacy statement reads. “You can opt out of sharing your information with third parties, unless it’s necessary to the functioning of the service.”
Asked for comments about the unreleased app update, Waymo told The Verge that it contained “placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose”.
Waymo’s AI-models “are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads,” spokesperson Julia Ilina said.
Waymo’s robotaxis, which are operating on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, do contain onboard cameras that monitor riders. But Ilina says these are mainly used to train AI models for safety, finding lost items, check that in-car rules are followed, and to improve the service.
The new feature is still under development and offers riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection, Ilina says.
But as we all get used to ads targeting based on everything that’s somehow connected to the web, it seems a once-distant vision of the future may be just around the corner.

Read more
Waymo’s driverless cars are about to begin an overseas adventure
Waymo Jaguar I-Pace

Waymo’s autonomous cars are about to appear on streets outside of the U.S. for the first time.

The company on Wednesday announced on social media that its autonomous cars will be driving onto the streets of Tokyo, Japan, “soon,” with some reports suggesting the rollout will begin as early as next week.

Read more