Who would want a taxi when you could have a speedboat?

That’s the extravagant choice offered to Uber users in Turkey, after the global taxi firm launched a new service that allows passengers to hail a speedboat on demand.

The new service has been launched in partnership with local sea transport company Navette, and will operate in Istanbul – in a bid to ease pressure on the city’s infamously congested roads.

And while local operations manager Austin Kim has said that more than 100 people have used the service since it was launched last month, it should come as no surprise that it’s slightly more expensive than your usual taxi trip.




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It will cost users 425 lira ($160) to travel on the Bosphorus to Atakoy, near Istanbul’s main airport, from a central pier – and each boat can take from six to eight people at a time.

The new service has launched in Istanbul (Picture: Amos Chapple/REX)

But the company has refuted suggestions that the new venture is just a marketing ploy, and explained that it was here to stay.

‘It was initially what we call a short-term stunt, just for the summer months because Istanbul gets quite crowded and we looked for ways to help with traffic aside from cars’ Uber spokesman Shaden Abdellatif said.

‘But it’s been so popular and so well-received that we’re going to make it a permanent fixture to Istanbul.’