Uber Shanghai announced on 10 June an exclusive offer to test drive the brand new Tesla Model S for free.
The test drive, however, is limited only to 15 minutes per person and will be available within the inner ring of Shanghai City from 10AM to 4PM of 18 June. Maximum of three persons can share a ride.
Tesla Motors is considered a leader in development of long-range electric cars. The company is based in Palo Alto, California. Its first electric vehicle, the Tesla Roadster, was launched in 2008. Tesla arrived in China in April this year, amid protests over delay in the delivery of pre-ordered Tesla Model S units due to limited number of charging stations put up across China.
The Tesla Model S retails at US$118,000.
On Thursday this week, the US electric car company CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla is willing to share its over 200 patents to any company that wants to build vehicles, in a bid to accelerate the development of electric vehicles and achieve greater economies of scale.
Uber is not immune to controversy either. Also this week, thousands of cab drivers were up in arms against Uber and other car-sharing services, in rallies across Berlin, Paris, Madrid and London that led to major traffic jams.
The cab drivers hit Uber for being an unfair competitor. They claim Uber does not comply with local licensing regulations and does not pay taxes.
The Telegraph reported an 850% increase in download of Uber app on the day of protest--its biggest day of sign up since it launched the mobile application in London two years ago.
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