4 ms·

Or use a new company like https://fasten.com/ https://fasten.com/ who doesnt do surge pricing.

by msde 11y ago

3princip 11y ago
>No surge pricing ... however if you're late for work ... you can always Boost your ride. The website explains to boost ones ride is to apply a multiplier to the price. One might call this a surge.
- msde 11y ago
  That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and incentives far better than Uber does. Uber is the classic case of aggressive government style intervention in a market causing it to collapse - no riders or drivers in high demand areas during surge pricing. This is a total failure of market policy because no price discrimination is allowed. Fasten is akin to setting minimum wage. They set a low base price but if you want to get somewhere faster or get preference during a busy period then YOU can raise your price by what it's worth to you. This is a big stumbling block for Uber to which Fasten has a rather decent solution.
  - te_chris 11y ago
    That sounds worse than surge pricing as a customer.
  - forgetsusername 11y ago
    >That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and incentives far better than Uber does. It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand.
    - dragonwriter 11y ago
      > It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand. Uber's system is a central planner trying to simulate the results of a two-sided auction by centrally setting prices to try to achieve a desired result given supply and demand signals. Fasten's system strips out the simulation and just is an auction, which allows supply and demand to align without requiring central planning. I think its pretty fair to describe the latter as evidencing a better understanding of economics.
      - toomuchtodo 11y ago
        Especially since its been proven that surge pricing doesn't incentivize more supply. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/how-uber-surge-pricing-really-works/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/ho...

Or use a new company like https://fasten.com/ https://fasten.com/ who doesnt do surge pricing.

by msde 11y ago

Or use a new company like https://fasten.com/ https://fasten.com/ who doesnt do surge pricing.

>No surge pricing ... however if you're late for work ... you can always Boost your ride. The website explains to boost ones ride is to apply a multiplier to the price. One might call this a surge.

msde 11y ago
That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and incentives far better than Uber does. Uber is the classic case of aggressive government style intervention in a market causing it to collapse - no riders or drivers in high demand areas during surge pricing. This is a total failure of market policy because no price discrimination is allowed. Fasten is akin to setting minimum wage. They set a low base price but if you want to get somewhere faster or get preference during a busy period then YOU can raise your price by what it's worth to you. This is a big stumbling block for Uber to which Fasten has a rather decent solution.
- te_chris 11y ago
  That sounds worse than surge pricing as a customer.
- forgetsusername 11y ago
  >That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and incentives far better than Uber does. It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand. Uber's system is a central planner trying to simulate the results of a two-sided auction by centrally setting prices to try to achieve a desired result given supply and demand signals. Fasten's system strips out the simulation and just is an auction, which allows supply and demand to align without requiring central planning. I think its pretty fair to describe the latter as evidencing a better understanding of economics.
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      Especially since its been proven that surge pricing doesn't incentivize more supply. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/how-uber-surge-pricing-really-works/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/ho...