Uber brings back on-demand ice cream

NEW YORK — Don’t scream for ice cream. Just pick up your smartphone.

Uber, the San Francisco startup known for letting people order private drivers in sleek black cars using a smartphone app, offered an ice cream-on-demand service — for one day only — in 35 cities around the world, including New York, Philadelphia, London, Singapore and Rome.

Friday’s stunt, an expansion of last year’s ice cream promotion, came in the midst of a sticky heat wave in New York City and elsewhere. Last year, people in seven U.S. and Canadian cities could use the Uber app to summon an ice cream truck hired by Uber to their location, provided they purchased a minimum number of treats.

On normal days, Uber lets people order a ride in a taxi, a regular car, a high-end sedan or an SUV using its smartphone app, after they register for the service with their credit card information. Rates depend on where you are.