Hacker News Reader

> In that scenario, Uber should be charging you a penalty for the cancelled ride.

Which would drive users to Lyft or other ridesharing services.

Lyft penalizes you $5 for cancelled rides after some amount of time, at least in SF. Also when the app makes a request on its own and you're not there.

As does Uber - they'll charge $10 if you cancel after 5 minutes after the driver is assigned.

http://blog.uber.com/2012/05/01/updated-cancellation-policy/

Uber charges the same $5 after 5 mins, if cancelled.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com