Grab system glitch pushes Singapore ride-hailing fares to S$1,000

Prices on ride-hailing giant Grab jumped about a hundred times from the usual rates, with short trips within Singapore costing S$1,000 or more, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday (Aug 20).

The Grab app displayed ride fares that were in the hundreds or thousands of dollars for a short while in Singapore, but Grab users in Malaysia also reported similar increases, said Bloomberg.

A Grab spokesperson attributed the elevated rates to a temporary display glitch. Fares were elevated for 17 minutes and went back to normal as of about 12.20 pm Singapore time.

Bookings or orders with such unusually high fares are usually blocked by Grab’s systems. The Business Times understands that Grab is nevertheless checking to see if any bookings or orders went through and will compensate for those.

Grab, which is backed by Uber Technologies, is the leading ride provider in Singapore and countries including Malaysia and Thailand. Uber left the region in 2018 in exchange for a stake in Grab, which is now locked in fierce competition against Indonesia’s GoTo Group and other smaller rivals.

“We encountered a temporary system issue that led to abnormally high prices being wrongly displayed in our app,” Grab said in a statement. “The issue has been resolved, and the app is now functioning as usual. We deeply regret the inconvenience caused.” With reporting from Bloomberg.

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