Uber CEO stunned by $52 fare for 3-mile ride
msn.com
msn.com
The app is misleading and insulting to users' intelligence. Multiple times, I've requested a ride, been connected with a driver, and it's completely obvious that the dude is still sitting in his house and hasn't gotten into his car yet. Yet the app will show A) The car moving around pointlessly on the map, B) The wait timer diminishing from 10 minutes, to 9 minutes, 8 minutes, etc.
It's so transparent that some asshole PM in San Francisco thinks he's really clever and that lying to users will improve retention or whatever. Which also means he thinks users are clueless rubes that can't tell he's fucking lying to them.
This might improve short-term metrics - perhaps I'm slightly less likely to cancel the ride on any particular trip - but in the long term it makes me hate this company and avoid using them unless I'm absolutely forced to. There's a million other things in the app and user experience that cause similar mental friction and stress.
The result is that these days I'd much rather drive my car to the airport and pay for parking than take an Uber.
- Sincerely, PM of driving directions in SF who takes a company shuttle into the office and doesn't own a car.
Silicon Valley PMs must drive a lot. My iPhone constantly nags me about "driving" when I'm riding the Subway reading a newspaper. Maybe when BART finally completes the ring around the bay we'll see products designed for people that use public transportation instead of driving alone.
Couple this with the arse of a VC who's making the meta worse and you all you need is a self-proclaimed capital F Founder type to have the perfect triumvirate of modern digital malaise.
I can't think of a single time I've had a problem like that. The only somewhat consistent thing that I encounter is GPS updating slower than the person actually is, but I'm in a pretty bad GPS/cell black hole.
You couldn't catch me ever driving my car and leaving it at the airport. That's going to cost you/ins $2k when someone chops out your catalytic converter. Don't ever leave your car in public parking anymore cat theft is so, so rampant.
https://www.denver7.com/follow-up/a-target-rich-environment-...
"The area of DIA, however, has seen theft increase by 28 percent this year compared to last year."
Based on other comments, it seems this might be a somewhat location-dependent phenomenon.
I'm in Denver.
Why did this all become so necessary in the past eight or so years? Aside from facilitating hyper-scheduled high-value per minute business trips, it seems like people efficiency LARPing or something.
There's a chance that what you consider a shut in might be very different from what I consider a shut in. Not to mention my friends and I aren't married or with families (and in our 30-40s). I work with a lot of people that have families of course due to my age and we live vastly different lives. I have a lot of "friends" that have families but they're more like people I'll grab a beer with once every few months. They're busy with soccer practices and what not. Not the friends I see weekly.
I'm out around town almost every other day. I took an Uber to Oppenheimer last night, 2.1 mile Uber. I think it ran me something like $11-13 before tip. Then I took an Uber about another 2 miles in a different direction from home to meet a friend for a beer. Then I ubered home about 3 miles. All of these Ubers show up within 5 minutes so I'm not spending much time waiting and can almost immediately get place to place. I could take a scooter or bus and dodge cars or spend 30 minutes getting somewhere. But even using a scooter I'm "using an app."
On Wednesday I did basically the same thing to go see Barbie except switch up locations a bit.
Not using UberEats is smart. It's a complete waste of money and I'm paying for total convenience and the fact that I haven't bought groceries in awhile. I also don't enjoy cooking in the least. Being hungry is a total inconvenience to me and if I could take a pill and be sustained I'd be out of this world happy. I don't live anywhere near a grocery store, I'm in a food desert so getting groceries requires me to spend about 40 minutes driving back and forth and all the pleasures that are driving around a big downtown, lack of parking, meter maids, general traffic.
So when I do get groceries I use Instacart/Kroger app. It costs me typically something like a $15-20 tip, lets me sit at my desk and pick out meals/recipe ingredients, etc and shows up in a couple of hours. I don't have to pull my Jeep out of a parking garage and deal with a 40 minute stressful drive to save $15-20.
I'm not sure how you completely missed the app train over the last 8 years and have literally never used an app for food delivery. That is incredibly strange to me. You've never sat at home, had a craving for some special restaurant who doesn't do delivery and .... wanted it delivered? You've never had a hangover or felt sick and wanted Pho to show up in 15 minutes?
Using a dating app is just increasing your pool of options. You can, and I have, spent days and weeks going to bars or meetups and trivias etc meeting people and you have no idea on initial interaction who is single, nor whether or not they find you attractive at all. Dating apps make that easy. If someone swiped on you they at LEAST find you somewhat attractive, theoretically. I've spent hours having conversations with someone I'm attracted to and possibly interested in while out and about to find out they're partnered up or I'm not their type. Dating apps just kind of bypass that and put the options front and center saving everyone time.
We're just wired differently.
You wind up paying a significant amount for food that has been effectively steamed in an insulated bag.
I'm not arguing that this is good. Like I said I will be moving to a more sustainable location when my lease is up. But I think it's important to acknowledge and understand the failings exhibited by American cities that end up promoting the use of these apps.
Completely anecdotally, Uber was great when the drivers didn't know where they were taking you. You booked, someone turned up, you got in and they drove you there. Now if it's 2am and you're going to a part of town that's in the slightest bit out of the way, good luck (and watch the price surge as you struggle to get someone to take you).
And don't get me started on the jobs that get accepted when the driver is "2 minutes away," but are clearly doing a job on another rideshare app and don't turn up for 15 minutes...
When Uber was a black car service it was great, although expensive. Now it's just expensive.
I remember this era with absolute DISDAIN. I HATED getting drivers who didn't know the area at all vs one who grew up in Austin or something. That was the difference between getting stuck some parade/festival traffic for 25 minutes vs taking a couple of back blocks and getting their in 15. I wonder if they account for traffic like that nowadays, I'd imagine not since they want you in the car longer.
Not to mention having to constantly stare at gps, not knowing what lanes to be in, etc.
The drivers may or may not have local knowledge, I know a lot of drivers I chatted with used to drive minicabs before they did rideshare. That said, I mostly use public transport unless it's super late, and at 2am the city is usually quiet enough that the sat nav route works fine.
That sounds kind of awful for the drivers, like if you'd planned to only do 2 hours of driving but someone decided to have you take them city to city or something at the end of your day.
Personally I have a hard time identifying with it.
Moreso, I am concerned that what appeared to be transitory inflation becomes permanent when consumers do not moderate purchasing in the face of prices rising at multiples of overall inflation levels.
Because they have no other choice.
Reminds me of the bus strike when I was driving cabs in Phoenix, people paid the price but nobody was happy about it as the other option was not having a job.
Destroy the competition then charge whatever you want.
Two mile ride in Miami and we get to the destination and the guy tells me his card reader doesn't work. Not the first time I've had one pull that scam.
edit: I'm getting some responses that I should've just hopped out. I did. Copy pasting the story I just posted in another comment -
---
> I had him drop me off at the mall so that I could grab a belt for a wedding that was happening an hour or two later. He told me his reader wasn't working and I didn't have cash. I was literally wearing swimming trunks and looked like I'd just come out of a pool, because I had. I said sorry mate you need to warn someone when they get in and not after the ride. I hopped out to go in the mall and grab a belt and he followed me screaming at me the entire time. This probably wasn't even a 2 mile ride. Hotel to Miami mall.
For some reason I can't remember the outcome. Maybe I got so sick of him I went to an atm. I hope I didn't. I don't know what other outcome would've happened. This was when I was young and hot headed and absolutely not afraid of this guy screaming at me.
I said sorry mate you need to warn someone when they get in and not after the ride. I hopped out to go in the mall and grab a belt and he followed me screaming at me the entire time. This probably wasn't even a 2 mile ride. Hotel to Miami mall.
For some reason I can't remember the outcome. Maybe I got so sick of him I went to an atm. I hope I didn't.
Same thing goes if they don't turn the meter on. Also a free ride. If they don't turn the meter on, ask them to right away. Or, wait until the destination and agree on a reasonable price or simply walk away.
If any cab driver tries to negotiate a flat rate ahead of time, it's usually a rip off. Though, I will do this after a busy event if we can agree on a price that's cheaper than ride share surge pricing and not outrageous. It's gotten so bad that if one does just turn the meter on at a busy event I give them a huge tip and say thank you for not pulling that crap.
The only time I'd do that was if it was the difference between a round-trip and just dropping them off, usually I'd just shut off the time part of the meter and wait for free. Or if something went wrong I'd give them the benefit of the mistake like if I forget to change the meter off airport rate or something. Other times I'd just give someone a deal because they obviously could use the money more than me and I felt bad for them.
Though...flat rates did make for some better rides since you can take whatever route you want and not worry about people complaining you're taking the long way to run up the meter. A couple times I had people "hardball" me over a flat rate (like "I won't pay a penny over $80 you dirty peasant") and I'd always make sure the meter was well over whatever high price they randomly decided on to make them feel better about their negotiation skills.
Usually whenever someone would ask for "the best price" I'd just say "whatever the meter says when we get there" and leave it at that unless they were doing something unusual like multiple stops over a long time period or if they were super determined and I was in a good mood.
(Edit: the people elsewhere in this thread saying things like "Uber used to work better than taxis, but lately drivers have started refusing to take me to out-of-the-way locations" are arguably seeing the exact same phenomenon. This is just what taxi drivers do in a normal market, because they're rational actors maximizing their hourly earnings. That was disrupted for a while by the entry of new players making the market topsy-turvy, but now that those distortions are smoothing out it's back to business as usual. You should get used to it.)
Yes, that's quite the inconvenience, I avoid the subway nowadays because all these life sentences add up. What am I going to do, not murder homeless people?
"Penny held Neely, in a chokehold on the subway train May 1 after Neely began shouting at passengers that he was hungry and thirsty and didn’t care whether he died. Penny forced 30-year-old Neely to the train floor and restrained him in a chokehold until he stopped breathing. A medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a homicide."
Also, even if you do have to put a person in a chokehold, remember this from the same page:
“Bottom line – at some point Mr. Penny should have let go before Jordan died,” the statement read. “There is no excuse for choking anyone for that long. Any reasonable person knows choking someone for that long will kill them."
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/14/us/daniel-penny-indicted-jord...
Also to note, Daniel Penny is not some random nobody like you are. He's a former marine, and should have known better because of his military training.
B: Share your sources or shut up.
In all curiosity: do you recall which ones? Not American, but I associate CNN with left-slanted, though generally factual, coverage.
The article is about a $52 fare for a 3-mile ride in NYC...
A couple days ago from one part of SF to another:
- Uber: 2 Miles, 25$, 16 minutes (doesn't include the subtle lying on waiting time).
- Walking: 2 Miles, 0$, 30 minutes, healthier.
It was well worth saving the $290.
(I normally fly into JFK and take the LIRR to Brooklyn. I didn't do that this time because my employer insisted that I fly into SJC instead of SFO to save on taxi fare. AA would only sell EWR-DFW-SJC and not JFK-DFW-SJC. Never again. When I worked for Google I flew business class from JFK-SFO with a fully-flat bed! Then took Caltain down to Mountain View.)
Anyway the original poster was clearly pointing out that public transportation in NYC is a reasonable alternative to Uber in NYC. Your bringing up the Bay Area is about as appropriate as my bringing up Prague where I live. Both are irrelevant.
This makes $52 (which includes the driver tip) seem pretty reasonable. Am I missing something?
And the fact that no one forced them to pay $52, they could have used a taxi in midtown Manhattan.
I am guessing traffic was particularly bad or something, or the supply of drivers was more constrained for whatever reason.
The airport stuff was a different trip/person.
>>> ”I got in the Uber to go to JFK. I was on my phone so I wasn’t paying attention. When I got to JFK, I looked to see what the price was to see what I’d tip. I saw $113. I was shocked. I was annoyed,” she told The Post Wednesday.
Also, PSA: Not sure it is still uptodate but years ago, official taxicab had set prices (~60$) to all NYC airports (JFK,LAG).
EWR is actually faster to get to from certain parts of manhattan over JFK.
If it's rush hour, the train pretty much always beats driving. Off hours, consider the $70 to be home in 10 minutes.
Such a terrible shame they're being forced to use uber
Coming back from SFO to south bay at night a couple weeks ago, we were quoted 120$. The driver take home was...30$.
I don't understand how we got in this situation. Is the app really providing that much value? Why can't a scrappy startup with 25 people not create a similar app and take a fixed 1$ a ride?
Today there is no other solution than accepting Uber (or similarly Lyft) prices. There should be a world where instead of paying 120$ I pay 60$ and the driver instead of getting 30$ gets 55$?
https://www.kut.org/transportation/2021-12-29/here-are-six-r...
Surely there's a huge network effect? Maybe it could work in one city, though.
> But the company’s prices in the US have increased at four times the rate of inflation – for a total of 83% — between 2018 and 2022, according to a recent Forbes analysis.
LOL, it's amazing watching CEOs use inflation as cover for their pricing decisions.
I'm not one to believe all companies are being this dishonest, but kudos to MSN for disputing their BS.
I'm sure a ton of drivers have both uber and lyft open, and a lot of users check on both lyft and uber. I don't have any special loyalty, go with whoever is the cheapest and if lyft is just $1-2 more expensive then I chose it over Uber.
I think Uber is trying to make a profit but slowly killing the golden goose.
To be clear about the headline. The CEO did not experience the event.
The journalist told them about it, and they were stunned or expressed being stunned. The CEO is distant from their own product and problems, and completely unaffected by them.
I've never understood the appeal of Uber or Lyft, and now in the era of surge pricing I really don't understand it.
1. Pick a cab company, look up phone number. 2. Phone, usually get a dispatcher but sometimes busy signal. 3. Tell them where you are. 4. Get very loose estimate on pickup time. 5. Wait with no updates. 6. Most of the time cab comes, if it doesn’t, GOTO step 1 by phoning back or trying another company.
Compared to 1. Open app. 2. Hit button. 3. “Real time” updates on car location and estimated time
I don’t like the gig economy model and I don’t use Uber and still use cabs, but I can see the appeal.
It was similar to that in London 10 years ago - the most 'fun' thing used to be booking a cab for an airport drop - would they turn up at 3am as planned? If not, what will you do - as their office may now be closed... I ended up nearly stuck at the airport one night after my booked cab (pre paid!) didn't turn up, so had to get a black cab at twice the cost, and only after I convinced him I had the cash at home, as I didn't have any on my and my card had been cancelled while I was on holiday (for using the card abroad). Fun
I'm honestly surprised they still exist. I have no idea whose money is keeping them in business.
1. Go outside
2. Put your hand up
3. Never get a taxi
> Most of the time cab come
This got really bad in many cities because of a cycle: If the rate of dispatched cabs get low enough, people make multiple requests to the dispatchers, so more than one cab would go to the spot, and you take whichever cab gets there first and the rest are "dropped". So the other cabs can't service dispatch requests, the servicing rate drops, so that further incentivises multiple request...
It does? That's not how I remember it.
Hasn't surge pricing been a part of Uber from day 1? I remember that being one of their original pitches, dynamic pricing being touted as a feature that will help get more drivers on the road when there are shortages.
Website looks clean if you're using an ad blocker, I can't imagine what it looks like without it.
Thoughtful UX? or ensuring ad views?