Article leaves out important point: they raised their commission from 5% back to 20% at the same time as the implementation of the $1 safe fee [1]. (They had dropped their commission to 5% in January with the price drop [2].)

This is a pretty big bet on their part that they've locked drivers into the Uber platform through enough volume/earnings.

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2014/04/18/did-uber... [2] http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/01/09/uber-cuts-price-on-so...