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Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription
- bpodgursky 10y ago> Flat fares are designed to cover full fares for almost every trip, with a $20 limit for uberPOOL and $25 limit for uberX. You’ll be responsible for paying portions of the fare that exceed those maximums on each trip. The pricing felt convoluted even before I saw this part. I can't see this being worth the effort, if you can't even guarantee the $7 prices.
- SilasX 10y agoYeah, this seems like a step backwards from their promise of transparent prices ("what we do on UberPool, but for everything"). What the heck is the point of flat pricing if you have to pay for overages anyway?
- Qworg 10y agoIt'll create an opportunity for someone to build a "exactly how far does each free trip get me?" app.
- calvinbhai 10y agoNext step for Uber would be to create Zones like Caltrain, and charge subscription based on travel between zones. Then no need of coverage. But going by Uber's history, this would be too transparent and wont workout for them.
- trjordan 10y agoThe overage feels generous to me. I'm not sure there's much of SF you can't get to with $25, even in traffic. It seems like this is their way of addressing the problem of "being in the car". If you get in the car with your $7 UberX pass, then demand to go to San Jose, something has to happen. Getting out of the car is probably worse for the customer, so they cap the amount this pass buys you, knowing you'll never hit the limit under the intended use case.
- gkop 10y agoGoing to San Jose is explicitly not covered "when your trip begins and ends north of Cesar Chavez St. in San Francisco."
- JoshTriplett 10y agoThey do need some way to prevent people from taking a $500 trip on a flat fare. However, it seems like they could handle that with something like "Must start and end in San Francisco, with a single destination" (meaning, not a "go here, wait for me to get back, then go here" trip).
- huac 10y agoMakes sense as a way to lock riders into Uber rather than Lyft. Wonder how drivers will react.
- fludlight 10y agoHow does this affect driver compensation?
- mmanfrin 10y agoI used Pool last night in the city. Took me from the Fidi to Inner Richmond. $2.37. It was almost cheaper than Muni. I can't imagine the drivers are making much at all.
- tachyonbeam 10y agoI had the same reaction when I rode UberPool from the south bay into SF (a 45 minute ride) for just under $18, and nobody else pooled with me. How could this be fair to the drivers? So I asked the driver how much he was getting for the trip. I believe he said something like $50. Fortunately, he wasn't getting shortchanged. Later, someone pointed out to me that Lyft and Uber are aggressively competing right now. It seems that Uber might be artificially deflating its prices to try and kill the competition, or discourage new companies from even entering the market. If they do manage to kill Lyft, you can be sure they will raise their prices again.
- Analemma_ 10y agoMargaret Thatcher once said "The problem with socialism is, you eventually run out of other people's money", which makes it ironic and humorous that Uber, the poster child of Valley Objectivism, has basically the same problem with their "price dumping funded by VCs" model.
- leereeves 10y agoThe strategy, of course, being to make their competitors run out of other people's money first.
- Nashhhh 10y agoThe key difference being that in the case of Uber, those VCs and investors gave their money voluntarily.
- orblivion 10y agoOne can still run out of voluntarily obtained money.
- zaidf 10y agoThe copy on this page is super unclear. I just realized(after signing up) that the subscription is to get the special $2/ride pricing, not the actual ride. Put another way: after you have the $30/month subscription, you can get UberPools for $2/ride.
- jeffjose 10y agoI thought that was clear. What were you confusing that with? I'm trying to understand what you initially thought it was.
- richman777 10y agoAgree, not really sure what the alternative would be?
- sickrumbear 10y agonot op, but i assumed the 'upfront' would fund the rides as well, vs. just 'unlocking' them. i read it as more of an initial prepayment.
- BinaryIdiot 10y agoSame; this is how it read to me. I was confused seeing this in the comments.
- the_watcher 10y agoThe unclear part was the portion where you select how many rides you want. $30/40 rides doesn't exactly clearly imply that you're paying to pay for flat rates. Not saying that it's not on the page, or that they're hiding details, just that they definitely obscured that element.
- technofiend 10y agoI would pay that in a heartbeat because daily commute costs via Metro is $2.50 (ignoring any pre-tax discounts I get). So for a four week month it costs $50 to take public transportation twice daily. For $110 I get a shared ride door to door? Sign me up. Except of course neither this or UberPool is offered in Houston so I guess we can all just suck it. Oh well. It would be nice. Population density is actually increasing in Houston's inner city. It would be an interesting experiment for Uber to at least try pooling inside our 610 loop area.
- chrisper 10y agoI do not really like Uber. The company does shady stuff quite often but also their drivers seem to be bad. They do not care at all about traffic laws. Illegal u-turns, stop wherever they want, etc. I can't surely be the only one who experienced this?
- aroch 10y agoBecause taxis don't do this??
- chrisper 10y agoI knew this would be one of the replies! Just because others do it, it doesn't mean everyone else should be doing it. Also, now there are not only bad taxis, but also bad Ubers! I feel like there are a lot more Ubers in an area than there are cabs. So I will get annoyed more often by an Uber than a cab.
- orblivion 10y agoYeah well thanks to Uber there are fewer cabs.
- nix0n 10y agoAs a cyclist (in Boston), it's somewhat easier to predict that a taxi might (suddenly) decide to park in the bike lane, and it's more surprising (therefore slightly more dangerous) when another car does it.
- NegativeLatency 10y agoI wish that it wasn't the exception to be ticketed for that. I see it all the time, as long as drivers get off with a warning (and not a fine) it will keep happening.
- superuser2 10y agoHave you ever ordered a package from Amazon, had a pizza delivered, or taken a taxi? Been picked up by a friend or parent somewhere that didn't have its own parking spaces? If so, I'm guessing you've benefitted from a driver stopping or parking in a place they weren't legally allowed to stop. Do you think these services should go away, or what?
- manojlds 10y agoInterestingly, Ola in India had already done something like this very recently. https://www.olacabs.com/olaSelect https://www.olacabs.com/olaSelect
- Jake232 10y agoThey launched this yesterday in San Diego also. I signed up. https://www.uber.com/info/plus/sandiego/ https://www.uber.com/info/plus/sandiego/
- cwilkes 10y agoClicking on the link launched the Uber app for me. I then rage quitted it before reading anything more. Also happens in "no so" private mode on the iPhone. Apple should really fix that as it leaks information.
- davidf18 10y agoHey Uber, it is very nice to offer this in SF, SD, Boston, but what about NYC? :-(
- effinggames 10y agoSeems like they offered something similar last month: https://www.giltcity.com/newyork/ubernycjuly16 https://www.giltcity.com/newyork/ubernycjuly16
- davidf18 10y agoUnfortunately, there was a limited number of offers and I was unable to get one. The SF, SD, Boston offers don't have that limit.
- alaskamiller 10y agoBack in September of 2009 JetBlue offered an all you can jet pass because September is traditionally the worst slump of the year. Summer's over, people start schools and jobs, travel drops overall. This is the same trick to get you out there more. It's also inevitably the end game for Uber. Deliver value for less than your monthly car payment. Someone is crunching the numbers right now figuring out exactly how much LTV they can extract from you in exchange for paying $500 a month every month to Uber. Then when Uber wins that game by the end of next year many other CPG and big box retailers will follow suit, riding along the subscription box model. By 2020 it will be normal for you to receive income from the government just so you can hand it over to lifestyle providers of all stripes every month to live how you personalized it to be. Latest fashion every month from WalMart! Semi-prepped meals every day from Safeway! 30 day supply of customized toothpaste from Target! Just insert token.
- lalos 10y agoSounds like a communist utopia, just replace the big corps like Walmart and Safeway with GovMart and GovWay. Maybe Marx was unto something on how capitalism would evolve, just got some parts wrongs.
- freddyc 10y agoThat was the best $500 I ever spent! I had just wrapped up a job and spent the entire month traveling the US and parts of the Caribbean all for the price of one trans-continental flight. I was really hoping they'd repeat the offer the following year, but alas it was a one-time deal.
- alaskamiller 10y agoBack in September of 2009 JetBlue offered an all you can jet pass because September is traditionally the worst slump of the year. Summer's over, people start schools and jobs, travel drops overall. This is the same trick to get you out there more. It's also inevitably the end game for Uber. Deliver value for less than your monthly car payment. Someone is crunching the numbers right now figuring out exactly how much LTV they can extract from you in exchange for paying $500 a month every month to Uber. Then when Uber wins that game by the end of next year many other CPG and big box retailers will follow suit, riding along the subscription box model. By 2020 it will be normal for you to receive income from the government just so you can hand it over to lifestyle providers of all stripes every month to live how you personalized it to be. Latest fashion every month from WalMart! Semi-prepped meals every day from Safeway! 30 day supply of customized toothpaste from Target! Just insert token.
- adamseabrook 10y agoThey also have flat fares in Chicago for $3.12 with uberPool, Monday to Friday 6am to 10pm. All trips must begin and end south of Irving Park, north of 71st Street, and east of Western Avenue. https://www.uber.com/info/chi-uberpool-312/ https://www.uber.com/info/chi-uberpool-312/
- nicwolff 10y agoUber has taken $12B of capital, broken the regulatory regimes and opened the drive-for-hire markets, marketed the benefits of drive-for-hire and ride-sharing to drivers and consumers, and helped drivers finance vehicles – but now there seems to be no barrier to entry for any competing service except writing an app. I'm happy to let VCs pay for my comfortable daily ride to work but I don't see how this is sustainable...
- methehack 10y agoI have long held the same position. The only thing I can think is that the pricing is based on an estimate of what will be sustainable once self-driving cars are used instead of drivers. Uber is, in fact, launching self-driving already in, wait for it...Pitsburgh. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-first-self-driving-fleet-arrives-in-pittsburgh-this-month-is06r7on http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-fir... So, maybe that's the deal.
- foobarqux 10y agoA new entrant would have an undifferentiated product (and no drivers)
- twblalock 10y ago> but now there seems to be no barrier to entry for any competing service except writing an app. If that's true, why isn't Lyft doing well?
- ianferrel 10y agoBecause Uber is outcompeting them on VC subsidies. The point of the parent is: How does Uber turn all these subsidies into an actual profit someday? It's easy to undersell your competitors when you're burning money. Once the VC dries up, how does Uber compete with any other entrant?
- serge2k 10y agoIf Uber grows to a point where they can set their prices to get a reasonable profit margin. If their competitors can't really undercut and make money then they have to rely on VCs who are willing to burn cash to help a competitor grow. But why a VC do that? `
- rayiner 10y agoI pay $3 to commute to my office in Uber Pool or Lyft--cheaper than Metro. Usually no other rider. I don't know how this is sustainable.
- ethanbond 10y agoWell, it's not. There is less money coming out of Uber than is being put into it by VCs. Not sure why everyone thinks these are such business successes. It doesn't take a genius to burn piles of cash.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- gogopuppygogo 10y agoAll electric vehicles that drive themselves will make it sustainable. They can afford to burn cash while they get the fleet going and then they replace all their expensive and error prone human labor with cars that drive themselves and don't need to sleep.
- vwcx 10y agoThe word "sustainable" in your reply is a joke when you consider the unsustainability of the automobile for single rider transit. Electric or not, it's a tough sell compared to mass transit.
- ricardobeat 10y agoNot if one car serves, let's say, 200 people a day instead of a single owner.
- abduhl 10y agoOne car serving 200 passengers a day is one passenger every 7.2 minutes. This equates to roughly 4 miles at 35 miles an hour. This assumes perfect routing and perfect loading/unloading (i.e. - the passenger magically appears and disappears in the car and that a new passenger is always ready to magically appear when the last one disappears). This seems rather short, and is a conservative estimate. These 800 miles would be reimbursed at $460 using the IRS mileage rate which is for gasoline vehicles, but assume that only 1/3 of that is gas and the other 2/3 is depreciation, wear/tear, licensing, etc. then we see that Uber would need to have each rider pay $1.53 just to break even on the cost of owning the vehicle. This ignores the fact that self-driving cars are likely to be much more expensive when it comes to non-gasoline costs. I believe I read somewhere today that the Teslas takes ~3mile/kWh so this cost would need to be added in, this is ~$0.07/mile at 20 cents per kWh. Total cost to break even is then roughly $1.80 per passenger, plus whatever additional costs a new and experimental all electric fleet with undefined insurance statistics costs above a regular vehicle. Assuming their current model of $8 per uberX ride is an example of what they expect to hit, then Uber is taking in $6.20 per passenger or $1240 per car per day or $452,600 per car per year assuming perfect efficiency. The question that really matters though is how will Uber's fleet deal with peak passenger demand? These 200 riders are not spaced out evenly at 7 minute intervals - most of them all will want to ride at the same time. People will stop using Uber if the waits become too long and Uber will lose its competitive advantage.
- foota 10y agoThis is being offered in Seattle as well.
- CodeSheikh 10y agoSeeing from the point of view of an investment banker, the money that Uber was going to get at the end of the month ($20-$30) will receive it now a month advance and Uber investors can put it towards whatever investments they want and in this way make extra $$$ and have another revenue stream going. Or Uber can pay off its drivers more earlier and in this way win more of their loyalty for Uber. Brilliant.