One of the goals of Uber is to improve cities and the lives of people who live in them by eliminating traffic from the roads, the 2017 World Government Summit heard.

One of the goals of Uber is to improve cities and the lives of people who live in them by eliminating traffic from the roads, the 2017 World Government Summit heard.

Travis Kalanick, CEO and founder of Uber Technologies, made the claim saying if the ride sharing economy continued to grow at its current rates, traffic jams could disappear from the roads of major cities within five years.

“One of the most things I get to do is meet with city officials or a large group of people, either riders or drivers in the city. I love telling them that in five years, there will be no more traffic. In somewhere like Delhi, it is more like seven years.”

Kalanick told the summit that use his ride-sharing app, which is now available in 500 cities worldwide, meant that 312 million miles were saved in the first half of 2016, a figure set to increase as use of the app and other ride-sharing sites continues to grow.  

In addition, the app’s pool car initiative continues to grow, with 40 per cent of rides in the Uber’s home city of San Francisco now on Uber Pool.

“More and more cars are going to be shared. It is going to be wonderful for our cities,” he said.