Uber is launching a water taxi service to allow people to cross between two continents via Istanbul's Bosphorus strait.
The UberBOAT service will show up on the smartphone app when users are near the coastline and will allow commuters to cross the Bosphorus, which forms part of the boundary between the European and Asian parts of Turkey.
However, the service is far more expensive than traditional water taxis, with rides starting at an estimated 50 Turkish liras (€17). Public ferries can cost as little as 2.15 lira (€0.70), though Uber does say its fare could be split between up to eight riders.
Boats are a popular form of transport in the Istanbul rush hour, allowing commuters to avoid the congestion which clogs the city's roads.
Some 300,000 commuters take the ferry to work every day, with Istanbul being cited as an example for other ferry networks such as the one planned for New York in 2017, which is planned to enhance transport to Manhattan from the city's outer boroughs.
According to GPS navigation company TomTom, Istanbul has the world's worst traffic, with a current congestion level of 58%. Moscow is the second-worst for congestion in Europe, behind Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro.
Uber Istanbul announced the service last week to coincide with the first anniversary of the firm's operations in the city.
The service is the product of a partnership between Uber and local company Navette, which owns the speedboats which will be deployed as taxis.
The ridesharing company has been at the centre of much controversy in Europe in recent months. French taxi drivers blocked roads and disrupted travel on Friday, striking against what they considered "unfair competition" from Uber and its UberPop service. More than 100,000 French citizens have now backed a counter-boycott of French taxis in response to the strike.
Earlier today, Uber's top two officials in Paris were detained by French police, the Paris prosecutor's office said. Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty and Thibaud Simphal, the firm's general managers for Western Europe and France respectively, are being questioned over possible violations of a new French law which bans services such as UberPop, according to the Wall Street Journal.
UberPop matches passengers with taxi drivers who do not have professional licences.
The US company is currently operating in 57 countries and has a presence in many European capitals including London, Berlin, Paris and Rome.
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Conor is a staff writer for Newsweek covering Africa, with a focus on Nigeria, security and conflict.
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