Taxi aggregator Ola has announced the launch of 'Ola Offline' across key metros in India to enable customers to book a cab even without Internet on their smartphones.
Piloting across the smaller towns and cities since June this year, Ola has paved way to the launch of this innovative feature for India with a start in four metro cities, and later on in rest of the cities, over the coming weeks.
The new feature works while attempting to book a cab on the Ola app in the absence of an Internet connection where the users will get two options of retry or book via SMS.
The customers can choose to retry if they've come to a place with better Internet connectivity, or go with the second option.
On selecting the latter, users will get redirected to their default messaging app where they will see a pre-entered text message requesting Ola to book a cab.
After the text message is sent, the users will get an SMS with the particulars of the nearest available cabs across categories.
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Once they select their preferred cab category, they will receive driver and cab details instantly by SMS.
The driver on the other hand will also receive customer contact details and the GPS triangulated location of the user.
However, once the internet connectivity resumes, the ride details, GPS tracking, SOS button, and other features associated with the ride will be available for the user on the Ola app.
"Mobility is an integral part of a developing economy. It should not stop, irrespective of any technology or infrastructural constraint. We will constantly look at innovative ways to realize our mission of building mobility for a billion Indians," said CTO and Co-Founder Ola, Ankit Bhati.
"We understand that while an Ola might be available around you, a working Internet connection might not always be. Ola Offline will now plug this gap," he added.
The 'Offline' feature was piloted in several smaller markets like Indore and Nagpur, and saw significant acceptance among the consumers in these cities over the past few weeks. Following its success in these markets, the feature will be rolled across all the 102 cities that Ola operates in.
A diverse country like India faces multiple challenges when it comes to offering a seamless mobility experience, and Ola with its wide variety of offerings including auto-rickshaws, e-rickshaws, Kali-Peelis, is successfully offering consistent and affordable mobility solutions across the 102 cities it operates in.
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