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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday May 21 2017, @12:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-am-willing-to-pay-$0 dept.

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


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  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @10:42PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @10:42PM (#513183)
    It's NOT the same ride!

    Cabs are rude smelly unreliable and a pain in the ass to deal with.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @12:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @12:07AM (#513212)

    Indeed. The last time I took an Uber, there wasn't any vomit on the floor and the guy didn't drive like a maniac. I almost got hypotension! So I tried a Lyft instead, and it was no better. No cigarette smell, no vomit, no questionable stains! I mean, WTF is this millennial hipster crap? When I want a ride somewhere, I want to struggle to understand what the driver is saying and mostly fail when he gets aggressive and starts threatening me. I want to feel queasy when I smell the vomit. Just like the good ol days.

    Oh, and none of this arriving on time shit. I want to wait at least a half hour after my ride was supposed to be there, unless I'm a minute late, then I want the driver to flip out on me about keeping him waiting for an hour!

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @12:55AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @12:55AM (#513230)

    Took cabs in and out from La Guardia to Manhattan in January. Both were clean, drivers friendly, price acceptable. One had lost the seal where the rooftop sign was bolted on, it was raining that day, and there was a small drip on the rear floor. Beyond that, little to complain about.

    Maybe Uber (and all) have caused the NY cabbies to raise their game?