This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 8, 2018

SINGAPORE: Grab yesterday unveiled three new services to its ride-hailing platform, in its first such update since it announced it would acquire Uber’s Southeast Asian operations in March.

Notably, two of three of these services are built on Uber’s previous offerings, including uberASSIST and Uber Car Seat.

A report by The Business Times said GrabAssist, which was due to be rolled out in beta yesterday, is a service for riders with mobility needs that is similar to uberASSIST. GrabAssist vehicles will accommodate foldable wheelchairs, walkers and collapsible scooters.

The service will be provided by about 1,000 drivers, and be priced marginally higher than JustGrab, Grab’s primary ride-hailing service that lets riders book either a private-hire car or taxi.

GrabCar Plus, which will be launched by the end of May, is a new “premium economy” service that features “better and newer” cars that are more spacious and generally less than three years old. GrabCar Plus will be priced between JustGrab and GrabCar Premium services. The latter is Grab’s luxury car service, the report by The Business Times said.

GrabFamily (ages 1-3), which will be rolled out by end-June, will cater to families with toddlers aged one to three. Each vehicle will come equipped with an IMMI Go car seat, and be operated by a driver who is fully trained on proper installation and use of the seat.

This new service will be priced similarly to Uber Car Seat, and will complement Grab’s existing service, GrabFamily (ages 4-7), another family-friendly option that offers a mifold child booster seat for children aged four to seven.

Lim Kell Jay, head of Grab Singapore, said: “The new services will make shared transport more accessible to different segments of community.”