Road trips are fun. But have you ever imagined driving all the way from Bengaluru to North Korea?
On Sunday, Bengaluru youth Prashant Shahi was faced by such a ludicrous prospect.
While you might have often struggled to get cabs of app-based aggregators to travel a nominal distance at odd hours, Prashant managed to book a cab to an obscure location in North Korea.
The highlight of the booking was that the cost of travelling a distance of 13,840 kilometres was little less than Rs 1,50,000 and was estimated to take five days from Bengaluru. What's more, it came with a free cancellation and lowest fare guarantee!
Speaking with NDTV, Prashant said, "North Korea had been trending all over the news... I once opened the Ola app instead of Google Maps to check North Korea's road connectivity to South Korea. There, I noticed was the option for booking a cab. I was surprised to see it possible myself."
Even better, he soon received driver and car details too.It was only after this that Prashant posted about the unusual event on Twitter.
Trip to #NorthKorea from #Bangalore just at ₹149088. @Olacabs @Ola_Bangalore #Ola #Bug pic.twitter.com/lVcrOtclXS
— Prashant Shahi (@coolboi567) March 17, 2018
But it was only when another Twitter user Rohit Menda, posted about the same, that Ola conceded that it was a glitch. Since then, the bug has been rectified.
How is this possible @Olacabs a trip to North Korea?
— Rohit Menda (@dynamitedroid) March 17, 2018
Please check your systems.#Ola pic.twitter.com/wi92DObwGp
Later in a cheeky response to the development, Ola tweeted, “When we said we wanted to shoot for moon, we didn't literally mean it ;) However, while we fix this issue, you can always take a flight to another country :)”
When we said we wanted to shoot for moon, we didn't literally mean it ;) However, while we fix this issue, you can always take a flight to another country :)
— Ola (@Olacabs) March 19, 2018
Meanwhile, the company is facing the heat of an ongoing strike by a section of its drivers in Mumbai who've alleged that Ola is underpaying its driver partners.
The company, rival to international player Uber in the app based cab aggregator segment, recently started its operation in Australia.