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Uber is testing a lunch delivery service in Santa Monica

Uber is testing a lunch delivery service in Santa Monica

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UberFresh trial runs through next Friday

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Presumably, Uber will one day be able to do basically anything for you that involves even the slightest amount of movement, and today that's getting a bit closer to reality as it begins to test a food delivery service in Santa Monica, California. The trial service, called UberFresh, allows anyone within the delivery area to have lunch off of a preset menu brought to them for $12. The options are pretty basic right now — just soups, salads, and a sandwich — and vegetarians are out of luck half the week, since there's only one option available each day.

Uber says delivery will take about 10 minutes

Uber says that it'll take about 10 minutes for the food to arrive — a quick turnaround that might just justify the pricey lunch. However, unlike Seamless, UberFresh won't bring the food right up to your door. Instead, the driver will just pull up curbside and hand it off to you there. There's no delivery fee beyond the flat cost of lunch, though, and Uber says that a tip isn't necessary. The service will run today through Friday, and again on the same days next week. Uber says it might prolong the experiment (or the area that UberFresh operates in) should it see any success this week. The service is accessible from within the Uber app between 11:30am and 2:30pm.

Like many startups, Uber's been more than willing to throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks. Just last week, it announced a service called Cornerstore in DC that allows people in the area to have items picked up and delivered to them from local stores. It's also testing a bike courier service in Manhattan. For the most part, though, Uber's experiments take advantage of that fact that it's already set up a capable infrastructure for delivery. Usually that's for bringing people from point to point, but it's trying a lot of other ideas out to see if there isn't something else — like food delivery — that can be just as successful.