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I think one of the best points of this piece is referencing the iconic U sticker that nearly all Uber drivers have on their windshield or passenger window. When
by flyosity 11y ago
I think one of the best points of this piece is referencing the iconic U sticker that nearly all Uber drivers have on their windshield or passenger window. When I've taken an Uber in an unfamiliar city (the bulk of my Uber trips basically) and I'm on a busy street corner, seeing the unmistakeable black-and-white sticker lets me know quickly and simply that I'm hopping into the right car, or where to start walking if it's 100' away.
What will the new Uber car sticker look like from afar? A circuit board? A community college parking lot pass? There's no way it will be as obvious and instantly recognizable as a big U sticker. In fact I can't even imagine Uber drivers will swap their decals out, ever, so it'll create a rift in the overall brand (drivers with U stickers, website/app with the new brand) and increase overall confusion with passengers.
- jonknee 11y agoAt least in Seattle they now have colored bars that identify the car (you can select the color in the app, it's an LED strip). http://mashable.com/2015/12/03/uber-spot-light-color-code/ http://mashable.com/2015/12/03/uber-spot-light-color-code/ The problem with just having a logo is in many places there are lots of very similar Ubers (oh hey my Prius is here!).
- brbcoding 11y agoAlways thought Lyft should have done this but by using a color changing LED version of the lighted mustache that some drivers have.
- lhnz 11y agoI actually wrote about something extremely similar back in 2014 [0]. Great to see that they came up with the same approach on their own, and that they simplified it; I'd assumed that the LED would be colour + nickname and not just colour. [0] https://twitter.com/nouswaves/status/537609194506305537 https://twitter.com/nouswaves/status/537609194506305537
- lechevalierd3on 11y agoThanks to you they can not patent it now...
- abuehrle 11y agoIt's interesting that they let the passenger pick the color. 2 passengers in the same area might both pick the same color and try to locate their driver based on that information alone. Uber knows which pickups are at the same place at the same time and could choose the colors that minimize confusion (some kind of 4D map coloring problem!)
- vlasev 11y agoDefine a graph by proximity in spacetime. Colour the nodes in different colours
- ethbro 11y agoWhy limit themselves to single color bars? Gentlemen and women, I invite you to dream bigger! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2JL0xABlrQ&t=1m50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2JL0xABlrQ&t=1m50s
- giancarlostoro 11y agoWhy not just disable already picked colors instead and still let the passenger pick a color regardless? Edit: Fixed a typo.
- saryant 11y agoWhy not just pick the color for the customer and ensure there aren't duplicates within the same block or so?
- giancarlostoro 11y agoI guess you could do both? Yet still allowing them to pick a color not yet taken within a certain distance could work.
- saryant 11y agoWhy? Just pick it for them. Don't present the user with choices that have no or negative consequences. Choice is not always good.
- the_mitsuhiko 11y agoI don't get why they don't do what most other countries do. Last N letters on the number plate and color of the car.
- abuehrle 11y agoThat's exactly what they do now. Identifying a color on an LED is easier than reading the license plate of a car across the street or distinguishing one green sedan from another.
- gffrd 11y ago… unless you're colorblind.
- runamok 11y agoPerhaps because license plates in the US are fairly small (at least compared to the UK for instance) and not all states require front plates?
- jonknee 11y agoThey do that, but tag numbers are hard to read at night and from a distance. I'm in Seattle, the color bars are nice (though they should auto-assign them).
- rconti 11y agoAnd if you get in the wrong car by accident, you might just have to beat up the driver!
- jdblair 11y agoBoth Uber and Lyft give you the license plate - I just note the first 3 digits and watch for that. I thought that's what everyone did.
- CapitalistCartr 11y agoIn Florida there are no front plates, only on the rear.
- jdblair 11y agoOh right, I forgot some states do this. I even used to live in Alabama, which has the same policy. Coming from Ohio (where I grew up) I always thought this was oddly impractical.
- DonHopkins 11y agoCan you also customize the horn the driver honks at you?
- NKCSS 11y agoWeird that it's allowed; here in The Netherlands, it's forbidden to have any kind of light in or on your car that's not defined by the standard (e.g. 2 headlights, turn indicators, break lights, etc.).
- ethanbond 11y agoI don't get why they didn't just do the reverse – have the user's phone screen switch to a random color and tell them when to hold it up so their driver can identify them on the street. You'd still have to do the secondary confirmation with names like you do now, but in terms of just finding the rider it'd be much easier for the driver.
- saddestcatever 11y agoI'd suppose it's a safety issue. I wouldn't want to draw attention to the fact that this person has no idea which car they're supposed to get get in.
- samstave 11y agohttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvq07KBfhnQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvq07KBfhnQ
- soneca 11y agoWell, in Brazil the Uber cars dont have any sticker. You recognize them by model and license
- nnd 11y agoSome of them do. At least black cars.
- Mister_Snuggles 11y agoThe couple of Ubers I've taken here in Edmonton don't either.
- arprocter 11y agoIt's pretty hit and miss in Boston and NYC too. Things are a little better now that the app shows the model and color of car, although that too seems to also be inconsistent
- saddestcatever 11y agoAt least most drivers in Boston have front license plates. I've always found that tricky when I'm in states that don't require them.
- Mister_Snuggles 11y agoHere in Alberta, front license plates aren't required. I don't even thing that they issue front license plates anymore. It would certainly make it easier to see if you've got the right car though.
- s_q_b 11y agoThis is why I believe that this rebranding is one of the worst since New Coke. It not only fails to help the brand. It actively hurts it. When you're trying to create a logo or brand, the first step in the process is to determine the "values" that are associated with a brand. These values force a company to ask what are we selling? Is a Corvette dealer selling you fuming gasoline, smudged glass, and cold steel? No, they're selling the open road. Sun on your arms, with the wind sweeping through your hair. The dealer isn't just selling an engine, some wheels, and a few chairs. What they're selling, what they're really selling, is freedom. Now look at the most recent U-logo for both Apple and Android: http://defiantly.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/uber-logo.png http://defiantly.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/uber-logo.pn... What does it communicate? First, it conveys identity. It shows me a high-contrast single symbol (U) that strongly identifies the brand. A customer can see that symbol a handful of times and come to instantly make a very strong connection to the company. Second, this logo immediately conveys the brand's values. Somehow I can tell that this is a premium product, probably in the "aspirational luxury" category: a treat for the middle class, a luxury for the haute middle class, and a necessity for the upper class. Why does the brain automatically know this? Because the logo draws on a language of visual metaphors that are embedded in our culture, and thus our advertising. See all the following logos: Gucci: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F6tpNhNYBdo/Usa7AjaHphI/AAAAAAAACZM/otjXbOeoyNc/s1600/Gucci-Logo1.gif https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F6tpNhNYBdo/Usa7AjaHphI/AAAAAAAAC... Versace: https://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1322717097_versace_logo.jpg https://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1322717097_versace_logo.j... Uber: http://defiantly.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/uber-logo.png http://defiantly.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/uber-logo.pn... High contrast black and white is a symbol for accessible luxury. The U renders it nearly universally recognizable. I understand the desire to tweak the branding, given the more market-diverse offerings, but throwing out what is quite close to a perfect brand for this nonsense reeks of corporate mismanagement. Sorry Uber. I'm glad I turned you guys down.
- EvanPlaice 11y agoDid you see Steve Yegge's OSCON '07 talk on branding? I'd post a link but it was originally hosted on blip.tv and no longer exists online. It's by-far the most influental talk about marketing I've come across covering the 'New Coke' branding kerfuffle as well as a lot of other great examples (ex Southern Bell's rebrand to AT&T). The message, a brand is essentially an immutable const identifier in the minds of the users. Once people establish a firm perception about a brand, it sticks for life. Diluting a well established brand by turning it into an 'umbrella brand' does nothing but erode its value and confuse the users. Once the damage is done, it can't be undone.
- uremog 11y agoI thought it was an old Chinese coin :(
- newman314 11y agoLOL. That was my immediate thought too.