Lyft Launching ‘Taco Mode’ To Enable Your Late-Night Taco Bell Craving
Anyone who’s ever begged and pleaded with their cab driver to take them to get fast food after a night on the town knows it’s not always an easy task. But Lyft apparently knows your darkest late-night desires, and is ready to be a Taco Bell accomplice.
Lyft and Taco Bell are partnering up for “Taco Mode,” which allows riders to request a stop at the drive-thru while they’re on their way to their next destination.
The new offering will only be available as a limited release at first, in Orange County, CA, between July 17-30 and Aug. 3-6. Taco Mode is only between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. on those days — prime taco time for anyone who’s put back a few that night.
Taco Mode will expand to other markets by the end of the year, with a national rollout slated for 2018.
Although there are no rules against fast food stops, some drivers might not be so willing to make the extra trip. There’s also the possibility that those late-night tacos may come back up during the ride.
But Taco Bell says passengers were Tweeting about wanting snacks on the road, so it got them thinking about teaming up with Lyft.
“Some people are either afraid to ask or don’t know if they can ask,” Marisa Thalberg, Taco Bell’s chief marketing officer, told The New York Times. “We’re taking all those questions marks of, ‘Would it be unseemly to ask my Lyft driver to go through the Taco Bell drive-through?’ And now we’re not only going to make it permissible, we’re going to celebrate this behavior.”
Speaking of tacos coming back up again: Not every driver will have to participate in Taco Mode.
“We will allow drivers to opt in to that so we can make sure we understand their full experience, and the customers can get the full delight of opting into ‘Taco Mode,’” Lyft’s head of marketing told the Times.
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