Discover how a Gurugram resident’s viral post about a poorly maintained Uber cab sparks conversations on vehicle hygiene and ride-hailing service standards in India. Learn more here.

A recent incident involving an Uber ride in Gurugram has gone viral on social media, sparking discussions about the quality standards of ride-hailing services in India. Rohit Arora, a resident of Gurugram, expressed his dissatisfaction with an Uber ride by posting photos of a poorly maintained cab, which he described as looking like it came straight from a junkyard.

Arora’s post quickly gained attention, highlighting concerns about vehicle hygiene and maintenance. In response, Uber reached out to Arora for more details to review the situation. This episode has fueled broader conversations about the need for stricter regulations and better standards for ride-hailing services in India.

Gurugram man says he has used the ride-hailing services of Uber in many countries, but for him the multinational takes the cake in India. Rohit Arora, a developer and tech reviewer, recently booked a cab that might as well have been from a “junkyard”, he said while sharing pictures from the ride on Monday.

“I have booked Uber in many countries but in India it’s the worst,” he wrote in an X (formerly Twitter) post.

Arora, who has his own car, explained that he uses Uber to avoid driving to his workplace or to get around, because of meetings or other team calls that usually overlap with his commute.

“I get Uber because I have a business account and I do book Premiere mostly. Sometimes I have to book Uber priority because of urgency (That’s where I got this car),” he said.

Arora’s last ride was a Priority, which soured his experience with dried-up mud on the car’s mat, which seemed like it hadn’t been cleaned for a while.

“It [hygiene] is the issue with India, but it is also Uber’s responsibility to inspect the vehicles and check what are they allowing,” the passenger wrote. “It is pretty common around the world except India.”

It wasn’t Arora’s first brush with disappointment at the hands of the company. In September, he had booked an Uber Premiere, only to be allegedly charged Rs. 1,7000 for the ride, which he said was “worse than Uber Go.”

BluSmart, a ride-sharing company headquartered in Gurugram, is Arora’s preferred cab service, he said. However, due to its unavailability and Uber being largely “free” for him, the passenger sometimes has to make a tough choice.Uber India was established in 2013 and has since grown to compete with Ola, together forming a duopoly. It overtook the Mumbai-headquartered company post-COVID, and has come to have operations across 125 Indian cities.