Vietnamese electric ride hailing service launches in L.A. with its own cars and drivers

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Los Angeles is getting a new all-electric ride hailing service as Vietnam’s Green SM launches in the city.

Its cyan-colored vehicles will compete with Ubers, Lyfts and autonomous taxis to shuttle customers across busy streets and freeways. The vehicles arrive amid a surge in transportation options as several robotaxi companies ramp up operations in Southern California and public officials work to expand the public transit network in time for the 2028 Olympic Games.

The company’s all-electric approach also comes as California drivers are being offered new state incentives to buy their own EVs.

Green SM was founded in 2023 and has operations across Asia and Europe, including in India, Denmark and the Philippines.

As the robotaxi race heats up across the country, key players including Waymo, Zoox and Tesla claim their technology is safer than human drivers.

“Green SM comes to Los Angeles with an operational foundation and a culture for service developed over years of experience,” said Christopher Walker, head of operations for Green SM U.S. “We have learned that service quality is often defined by how well we execute the fundamentals.”

The company’s launch in Los Angeles on Tuesday marks its first entry into the U.S. market. It brings with it a model for ride hailing that differs from the dominant Uber and Lyft.

Green SM owns and maintains its fleet of electric vehicles, built by the Vietnamese global automaker VinFast. VinFast transitioned to 100% electric vehicles in 2022 and is the top-selling vehicle brand in Vietnam, but it isn’t widely available or popular in the U.S.

The new fleet of VinFast SUVs brought to Los Angeles by Green SM could help the Vietnam-based automaker gain traction in California.

The ride-hailing company Uber is cutting thousands of jobs to simplify its management structure, the chief executive said in a letter to employees Wednesday.

Green SM will start with 500 vehicles for its Los Angeles fleet, along with 500 drivers. Riders can download the app and travel across L.A. County and south to Orange County. The vehicles don’t yet have approval to serve Los Angeles International Airport.

The price of a ride in a Green SM vehicle will depend on the time and distance, Walker said, but will be competitive with Uber Comfort, an elevated ride-hailing option.

A key characteristic of Green SM is that it employs all its professional drivers as full-time, W-2-based employees, unlike Uber and Lyft’s gig-worker model. Many Uber and Lyft drivers have long protested their classification as gig workers and demanded employee benefits such as overtime, sick pay and benefits.

A union representing Uber and Lyft drivers in California was certified by regulators after it gathered tens of thousands of signatures in support.

California drivers suffered a loss in 2020 when the state passed Proposition 22, which allowed app-based ride-hailing and delivery companies to continue to classify their drivers as independent contractors rather than traditional employees.

But California regulators certified a union representing Uber and Lyft drivers last month, marking a milestone in a years-long fight by gig workers in the state.

“Think about what happens when a driver has stability and pride in their work,” said Green SM’s U.S. Chief Executive Hoang Thanh Hang at the launch event Tuesday. “We are bringing back the dignity of driving as a true profession.”

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Caroline Petrow-Cohen is a Business reporter at the Los Angeles Times covering electric vehicles and aviation. She is a graduate of Duke University, where she studied journalism, English and environmental science and policy.

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