Meet Cargo, the vending machine app for Ubers

Ubers are awesome, aren’t they? They’re a good way of avoiding public transport on nights out, and they’re the best way of getting home when you’re not even sure what’s happened or where you are. However, one company wants to make them even better.

Cargo is a startup

 that ones to combine the ease of an Uber with the convenience of an off-licence, and it wants to do it by basically installing vending machines into each car. The premise is simple: every Uber has a unique identification code that passengers can enter into the Cargo website.. Once the passenger has picked what crisps, chocolate, Pro Plus or Lucozade or other snacks they’re after, they can then pay via a card or Apple Pay. After that, the driver gets a notification to pass the products over.

Cargo believes the system will be run like a franchise, so it’ll be up to the driver to make sure their box is stocked, and it will also be in the interests of the driver to get sell things: Cargo is saying the driver will get 50 cents for every product sold. According to TechCrunch, top drivers can earn up to $100 a month from the system, but brands could benefit, too.

Jeff Cripe, co-founder and CEO of Cargo, told TechCrunch that it will soon work with brands, essentially using passengers like a focus group or engaged audience. Cargo already has both time and location data, so brands could use that to work out what’s chosen and when giving them more information about their customer demographic.

So far, the startup is up and running in New York, Chicago and Boston, but it’s already in demand everywhere else. There aren’t any plans to come to the UK yet, but if popular in the US it will probably roll out here too – if a UK-based startup doesn’t do it first.