According to reports, Ride-hailing firm Uber is piloting in-car tablets to show advertisements and value-added services to riders in Delhi and Mumbai as part of a global rollout.

These tablets will be fixed behind the front seat facing the rider and is a way of monetizing and creating additional revenue streams by showing ads to users.

Reports suggest that, a lot of critical engineering work for this pilot is being done by the Indian engineering team and it is a global product. The tablets will first be installed in cabs in the United States before being brought into markets like India.

The company can show third-party ads and also cross-sell other services like Uber Eats.

The development but did not share further details as the project is at an early stage.

Competitor Lyft says that it would set up a media division to monetize users through in-car ads.

Tech companies across sectors are increasingly focusing on advertisement revenues to improve unit economics. E commerce behemoth Amazon, for example, generated more than $30 billion in 2021 from ads alone.

The Uber pilot comes after its increased focus to tap into India’s engineering talent for global needs amid reports about a potential sale or merger with Indian rival Ola.

Andrew Macdonald, head of global mobility says, “Uber was debuting and testing a lot of innovations in the country. It already has around 2,000 employees in India and plans to add 500 more.”

According to reports, Uber needs to get the product out fast because it is like a race with Lyft on who can fit the tabs first in the car. If Lyft fixes a tab first it will be complicated for Uber to ask the driver to install Uber’s tab.