On-Demand Taxi Service Uber Is Offering Free Rides To Undercut One Of Its Biggest Competitors

An Uber car."Road rage" takes on a whole new meaning as two car-sharing services are battling to make a name for themselves in new cities.

Lyft, the ride-sharing service that markets itself as "your friend with a car", has begun offering its services in St. Paul and Indianapolis. Lyft lets normal people act as taxi drivers and earn a few extra bucks by picking up people who hail them with a smartphone app.

Uber, a rival service that employs regular taxi drivers, has responded by launching in the same cities in an effort to undercut the competition. But Uber has taken it one step further and is offering free rides in St. Paul and Indianapolis for free through the end of September. We first saw the news on PandoDaily.

The free Uber service comes from Uber X, a cheaper version of Uber's premium service. Uber X drivers mostly use normal sedans, not fancy black cars.

Uber can afford it. It recently raised a $258 million round of funding from Google Ventures and is valued at $3.4 billion.