GrabFamily vs Uber Car Seat

We were there for the launch of GrabFamily in March 2017 and today, we had the privilege to see first-hand what Uber is rolling out tomorrow [14th of June 2017] for a child-safe ride in their cars. While GrabFamily gained great publicity with first-mover advantage, Uber Car Seat may not be losing out in the long run! 

Note that that this is not a paid review by either companies for me to promote their services and to state which is the better of the two. Of course, they would love if I had gone back from the media invitation to write something exclusively for each of them but I thought a comparison would make more sense for parents like you and I. 

I placed a STAR for every feature win [in my opinion] in GrabFamily and Uber Car Seat. Uber Car Seat can provide safety for children from age one with a five-point harness - the reason why I say Uber Car Seat may not lose out in the long run even though GrabFamily launched it way before them.

CAR FARE
So it seems it doesn't quite matter if the additional charges to ride an uberX with Car Seat is higher than GrabFamily [SGD 2 vs SGD 5] because the difference in the final fare is almost negligible.

I took a Fare Test [at 1650hours] by opening the respective apps and chose GrabFamily with a route from home to the children's pre-school. It returned me SGD14. With Uber, I chose uberX and added SGD5 to the fare for the Child Seat option, which came up to SGD14.69. No big difference in price and so that part of the comparison is put out of the way. 

ABOUT THE CAR SEATS
Understanding that it will be a problem for drivers to store booster seats in their boots because it takes up a lot of space, these companies have chosen their preferred brand of car seat to collaborate with for their family-friendly cars.

GrabFamily's mifold Grab-And-Go booster seat is so compact, it can fit into the glove compartment! If you watch this clip, you will be pleasantly surprised to see how slim it is. mifold is amazingly well-designed to be the number one leader for most compact booster seat. I cannot deny them of that. Instead of raising the child up with a booster seat to safely buckle them in, mifold actually brings the belt down to the child's level and thus, doesn't require it to be bulky.

With this amazing invention, I could easily pack it along in my bag when I flag down a cab on the street without compromising on their safety.

The only problem is, Faye at age three is not suitable to be belted up with the mifold. A mifold is designed for children from age four and above. We own two mifolds [gifted to us from GrabFamily's launch back in March] and I still have Faye sit in one when we take a cab. Some kind of harness is still better than nothing in my opinion!

Watch GrabFamily mifold Demo:

Uber Car Seat's IMMI Go folding car seat is not as compact and you cannot fit it into your glove compartment. Well for good reasons. This seat is almost a full-fledged car seat except that it is foldable. To be honest, unless you are looking to purchase a portable car seat for your travels, the size of the car seats in GrabFamily or Uber Car Seat does not matter. It only matters to the driver for storage purposes!

Safety-wise, I give the IMMI Go two stars because my child is strapped up tightly without compromising them to any kind of accidents. Best of all, the minimum age to use IMMI Go is one! Faye is eligible for a safe ride in Uber Car Seat!

Watch Uber Car Seat IMMI Go Demo:

WILL THE CARS COME WITH THE CAR SEATS INSTALLED?

Oh most definitely. When you call for a GrabFamily or Uber Car Seat service, they will have your car ready with the child seat at the back seat. So really, you won't have to buckle your child up yourself if you do not know how. The only downside for now is that each car has only one mifold or IMMI Go available. If you have more than one toddler who requires a child seat, they have to play Scissors, Paper, Stone. Of course this is only the beginning stages. I am sure they will increase the number of portable seats available in their cars if there is a demand for it in Singapore.

I wonder though. How easy would it be for us to book a family-safe ride with Uber. It has been months since GrabFamily is up and running. Yet, I still have difficulties calling for a GrabFamily car to pick us up. I never had a successful call and had been booking ourselves into GrabTaxis instead.

If Uber Car Seat wants to make this work, they will need to roll out a whole lot more of such cars on our roads.

I used to be an Uber user but got "bought over" by Grab from all their coupon codes. It's a lot of money I save and as a SAHM, a few dollars a day makes a big difference! However, I am looking forward to give Uber a shot again after today. If I were to choose a ride for the kids and myself, I would choose Uber Car Seat for IMMI Go.

To Purchase: mifold and IMMI Go can be purchased at TaxiBaby. They also offer plane travel accessories like the BedBox if your family is going on a long haul up in the air!

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