Order ice cream on demand - but just for one hot day

NEW YORK - Don't scream for ice cream. Just pick up your smartphone.

Uber, the San Francisco start-up known for letting people order private drivers in sleek black cars using a smartphone app, is offering an ice cream-on-demand service - for one day only - in more than three dozen cities around the world, including Philadelphia, New York, London, Singapore, and Rome.

Friday's stunt, an expansion of last year's ice cream promotion, comes in the midst of a sticky heat wave. 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. But demand exceeded supply, and not everyone who wanted ice cream got it.

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. The service was launched in Philadelphia in June.

Travis Kalanick, who cofounded Uber in 2009, said that although there was no way to meet all the demand for ice cream, "there is going to be crisp communication" that it is in very limited supply.

But for those who do get ice cream, he added, it's "a magical experience" to be able to push a button and summon an ice cream truck - or in the case of Italian cities, a gelato truck.

People will have to order more than one cone to have a truck come to them. Depending on the city, six ice creams will cost $20 to $35. The trucks will be out from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Uber is currently available in 35 cities, up from about a dozen at this time last year.