Uber and Disney are giving Star Wars fans a bit more incentive to hail a ride to the premiere of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with a new promotion that begins rolling out Sunday and should be available in the Uber app in hundreds of cities by Monday. The in-app features, which are available on an opt-in basis (so die-hard Trekkers don’t have to endure the pain) will replace the little car images on the Uber map with various Star Wars starships, including the iconic X-Wing.
It doesn’t stop at fun graphics, either — there’s also previously unreleased video content from Rogue One built-in to the app, which can be accessed once the features are activated by a user. No hint on what these might be, but I’d imagine small featurettes or one-off clips from the film are likely possibilities.
For Disney, this is a smart way to get some last-minute promotion for the film in front of the huge audience of Uber riders out there. It’s running December 12 through the 18th, officially, so that will cover the launch window of Rogue One, which debuts in theaters on Friday, December 16.
It’s also a clever activation by Uber, since it’s opt-in by default to avoid confusing or frustrating existing users who aren’t expecting Star Wars ships all over the place. And tie-ups with major films are a staple of Uber’s business model in recent years, including promotions run with Batman v Superman, X-Men Apocalypse and Kingsman, among others.
Now, if only they’d figured out how to make an ACTUAL X-Wing show up at my door for the pick-up. Oh right, they’re working on it.