Sidecar has announced it’s shutting down at the end of the year. Company chief executive Sunil Paul explained in a Medium post (not the company’s official blog, strangely) that the move was intended to help pave the way so his team could “work on strategic alternatives and lay the groundwork for the next big thing.” All ride and delivery operations will shut down at 2 p.m. Pacific time on December 31, 2015.
One of the pioneers of the ridesharing movement years ago, Sidecar has failed to capitalize on it, losing ground to Uber and Lyft, both of which have raised hundreds of millions of dollars. But Sidecar’s approach was slightly different in that it allowed riders to select their drivers and didn’t have an issue with surge pricing, which many criticized its competitors for.
