Uber rides into Germany as its first cars start operating in Berlin

Private car service Uber is at it again, this time expanding to the German market after giving customers their first rides in Berlin.

Interestingly enough, Soundcloud co-founder Alexander Ljung was the first passenger, riding in style in a Mercedes S-Class.

The company says it’s still in testing phase, starting out with just a couple of cars in the city as of Wednesday and adding more every day. Initally, the service will only be available in Berlin.

Uber added German localization to its iPhone app earlier this month, shortly after launching a redesigned Uber 2.0 with Foursquare integration.

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Germany is an interesting market for Uber, since the company’s name is itself borrowed from German (minus the umlaut). In fact, the startup’s founder Travis Kalanick has said that it will go by the name “Super”, as also pointed out by DCist.

Other upcoming expansions for the company include Stockholm and Melbourne, where it has also begun test phase rollouts.

Uber has steadily been gaining support for its service after being met with early resistance from city governments. It recently collaborated with the city of DC on a “legislative framework” that should make it fully legal. New York City also recently passed regulations that should legitimize the UberTaxi service.

Header image via Flickr / svenwerk