Uber drivers have been complaining that the gap between the fare a rider pays and what the driver receives is getting wider. After months of unsatisfying answers, Uber Technologies Inc. is providing an explanation: It's charging some passengers more because it needs the extra cash.
The company detailed for the first time in an interview with Bloomberg a new pricing system that's been in testing for months in certain cities. On Friday, Uber acknowledged to drivers the discrepancy between their compensation and what riders pay. The new fare system is called "route-based pricing," and it charges customers based on what it predicts they're willing to pay. It's a break from the past, when Uber calculated fares using a combination of mileage, time and multipliers based on geographic demand.
Daniel Graf, Uber's head of product, said the company applies machine-learning techniques to estimate how much groups of customers are willing to shell out for a ride. Uber calculates riders' propensity for paying a higher price for a particular route at a certain time of day. For instance, someone traveling from a wealthy neighborhood to another tony spot might be asked to pay more than another person heading to a poorer part of town, even if demand, traffic and distance are the same.
Source: Bloomberg
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @07:13PM (3 children)
OK then - how much is an ambulance ride worth?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @08:40PM (1 child)
What are you talking about? What's special about ambulance rides? The last time I had a heart attack, I did some price shopping. I couldn't use just any taxi or Uber since they wouldn't be equipped with paramedics, since seconds would matter. Once I had it narrowed down to two ambulance companies, I played them off each other and managed to get a pretty good deal after a few days of haggling.
Wait... it doesn't work that way for you? That's what you untermensch get for always needing instant gratification with amulances.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @09:42PM
That's the whole point of, say, subscribing to an insurance plan: You are paying people to do that kind of research for you ahead of time, and thereby provide the equivalent of the very kind of consumer selection to which you refer. Of course, it doesn't help that governments tend to quash variation in ambulance services.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @09:37PM
Is it Albert Einstein, or is it Jeffrey Dahmer?