Monday, May 23, 2016

Wingz Launches Into Austin, Aims At Void Left By Uber, Lyft

A new, peer-to-peer ride service--Wingz--is rushing into the void left by Uber and Lyft, and says it has just launched a new, pre-booked private ride service in Austin. The San Francisco startup, which is backed by Expedia, Altimeter Capital, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, says it uses both commercial and non-commercial drivers. The company said that--unlike Uber and Lyft--it is embracing the new fingerprinting requirements of Austin, and hopes to have all of its drivers fingerprinted by June 1st. The company had originally only focused on pre-scheduled rides between a location and the airport, but said--due to the vacuum left by Uber and Lyft--it is now offering ride around town as part of a "beta" launch of a new service called WingzAround, just in Austin.