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> drivers often don't know the neighborhood and rely exclusively on GPS I drove for Uber about 3 years ago for a couple of months when getting my consultancy o

> drivers often don't know the neighborhood and rely exclusively on GPS I drove for Uber about 3 years ago for a couple of months when getting my consultancy off the ground, which led to my current gig. If I had a way to tell Uber "Don't give me rides that require me to leave a given geofence--we'll all have a bad time." Then I'd have been much, much happier. Everyone wanted a ride from my suburban town to the metro area that I know nothing about. Every now and then I'd get one where start point and endpoint were both my own town. I'd have happily taken less fares in order to drive more familiar streets, and the people who rode with me would have enjoyed it more.

kelnos 7y ago
The problem there is twofold: 1) Many drivers from your town would likely geofence themselves to your town, reducing the supply of drivers that will drive to the metro area, increasing wait times and driving up prices, making riders unhappy. 2) Drivers would use this feature to avoid driving to "bad" parts of town, making transportation discriminatory. (In ways that are illegal for traditional taxi companies, so Uber would eventually run afoul of the same regulations.) It's a shame because there are reasonable use cases for a geofencing feature (you seem to certainly be one of them), but it can be easily abused and can hurt the rider experience depending on locale. (Not saying the rider experience is inherently more important, but certainly Uber/Lyft would see it that way.)
- cabaalis 7y ago
  For #1, it seems the market would adjust. We already see complaints about drivers not knowing the area they're driving in. Would it reassure riders to know that their driver spends 99% of driving time in an area they're riding? For #2, sincere problem for which I am not aware of a good solution.
  - kelnos 7y ago
    Not if there aren't enough drivers there, period. I'd much rather a driver unfamiliar with my city who needs Google Maps to get me to my destination if the alternative is I have to wait 20 minutes for a car.
  - LifeLiverTransp 7y ago
    You could also allow for auto-handshakes, drivers who prefer to drive only within a radius handing over there passenger to another driver in transit.
  - repolfx 7y ago
    Solution is to repeal the laws that make driving non-discriminatory. It'd be painful in the short run but ultimately a place being so bad cabbies won't drive there is a signal there is a serious need for other forms of intervention, probably by policing changes. Wallpapering over the symptoms may relieve short term pressure but is no long term solution.
- Simon_says 7y ago
  Yes, this is how supply and demand works in a healthy market. Riders should pay higher prices for tasks that drivers are less willing to do, and concomitantly drivers should get paid more for those tasks.
  - geofft 7y ago
    That's a "healthy" market in the sense of a liquid market with high levels of information communication. That's not necessarily the same thing as a "healthy" market in the sense of good public policy. For instance, very few people would say that a "healthy" labor market has no minimum wage or discrimination protections, trusting supply and demand to solve those adequately. Similarly, letting the market price trips to "bad" neighborhoods higher is probably undesirable, even if that's what a free market would do. It also may not be the same thing as a market customers understand and feel comfortable participating in. It's true that there's more demand for unblemished produce priced the same as misshapen ones, but I'd be very unlikely to patronize a grocery store that ran an auction for each individual vegetable. So it might be in Uber's interest to not expose a variable-pricing mechanism. (Indeed, customers already seem not thrilled with surge pricing, even though it arguably gets them the service they want more efficiently.)
    - Simon_says 7y ago
      > very few people would say that a "healthy" labor market has no minimum wage or discrimination protections ... Unfortunately, you're talking to one of those few people. I'm against government mandating minimum wages or mandatory maternity/paternity leave. If you want those things, you can try to negotiate for it. > customers already seem not thrilled with surge pricing This is a true statement, but I wonder about these people. I don't share their view.
      - TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
        Government mandate minimum wages and mandatory parental leave are the result of people having negotiated for them.
- rossenberg79 7y ago
  Having to do fares in the bad part of town is the reason my brother carries a loaded gun under his seat while driving for Uber.
  - fwip 7y ago
    Bringing a loaded gun with you is a good way to end up dead.
    - yspeak 7y ago
      What how does that work logically or in reality ? Good guy has no gun, bad guy does, 100% good guy gets robbed, raped, kidnapped, or killed. Good guy has gun, bad guy runs away most of time or sometimes gets killed or captured or otherwise stopped some of time, or sometimes robs, rapes, or kills good guy despite good guy gun some of time. 100% of time I like the second scenario. "Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was 'used' by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies. ... Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008."cdc see https://www.investors.com/politics/columnists/how-many-lives-are-saved-by-guns-and-why-dont-gun-controllers-care/ https://www.investors.com/politics/columnists/how-many-lives...
    - plankers 7y ago
      Well it's not very useful without the bullets.
    - LifeLiverTransp 7y ago
      Yes, but the criminal always has first draw, first action. Unless the criminal is a bad shot or otherwise unlucky, you just escalate a situation in which you are already on the losing end of a stick. Just explain to me the game theory plus of a main-street battle, where the bad guy already holds you at gun point- and you have the chance to accelerate towards the bitter end?
ape4 7y ago
It's odd that this still isn't available. If you just want to drive for Uber for a couple hours you don't want to be taken to the other side of town
- MuffinFlavored 7y ago
  How profitable is "just driving Uber for a couple of hours"?
  - c0vfefe 7y ago
    Not speaking from experience, but the earnings seem relatively linear. Two hours a week would tend towards the thirty hrs/wk hourly rate, I'd think.

kelnos 7y ago

The problem there is twofold: 1) Many drivers from your town would likely geofence themselves to your town, reducing the supply of drivers that will drive to the metro area, increasing wait times and driving up prices, making riders unhappy. 2) Drivers would use this feature to avoid driving to "bad" parts of town, making transportation discriminatory. (In ways that are illegal for traditional taxi companies, so Uber would eventually run afoul of the same regulations.) It's a shame because there are reasonable use cases for a geofencing feature (you seem to certainly be one of them), but it can be easily abused and can hurt the rider experience depending on locale. (Not saying the rider experience is inherently more important, but certainly Uber/Lyft would see it that way.)

cabaalis 7y ago
For #1, it seems the market would adjust. We already see complaints about drivers not knowing the area they're driving in. Would it reassure riders to know that their driver spends 99% of driving time in an area they're riding? For #2, sincere problem for which I am not aware of a good solution.
- kelnos 7y ago
  Not if there aren't enough drivers there, period. I'd much rather a driver unfamiliar with my city who needs Google Maps to get me to my destination if the alternative is I have to wait 20 minutes for a car.
- LifeLiverTransp 7y ago
  You could also allow for auto-handshakes, drivers who prefer to drive only within a radius handing over there passenger to another driver in transit.
- repolfx 7y ago
  Solution is to repeal the laws that make driving non-discriminatory. It'd be painful in the short run but ultimately a place being so bad cabbies won't drive there is a signal there is a serious need for other forms of intervention, probably by policing changes. Wallpapering over the symptoms may relieve short term pressure but is no long term solution.
Simon_says 7y ago
Yes, this is how supply and demand works in a healthy market. Riders should pay higher prices for tasks that drivers are less willing to do, and concomitantly drivers should get paid more for those tasks.
- geofft 7y ago
  That's a "healthy" market in the sense of a liquid market with high levels of information communication. That's not necessarily the same thing as a "healthy" market in the sense of good public policy. For instance, very few people would say that a "healthy" labor market has no minimum wage or discrimination protections, trusting supply and demand to solve those adequately. Similarly, letting the market price trips to "bad" neighborhoods higher is probably undesirable, even if that's what a free market would do. It also may not be the same thing as a market customers understand and feel comfortable participating in. It's true that there's more demand for unblemished produce priced the same as misshapen ones, but I'd be very unlikely to patronize a grocery store that ran an auction for each individual vegetable. So it might be in Uber's interest to not expose a variable-pricing mechanism. (Indeed, customers already seem not thrilled with surge pricing, even though it arguably gets them the service they want more efficiently.)
  - Simon_says 7y ago
    > very few people would say that a "healthy" labor market has no minimum wage or discrimination protections ... Unfortunately, you're talking to one of those few people. I'm against government mandating minimum wages or mandatory maternity/paternity leave. If you want those things, you can try to negotiate for it. > customers already seem not thrilled with surge pricing This is a true statement, but I wonder about these people. I don't share their view.
    - TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
      Government mandate minimum wages and mandatory parental leave are the result of people having negotiated for them.
rossenberg79 7y ago
Having to do fares in the bad part of town is the reason my brother carries a loaded gun under his seat while driving for Uber.
- fwip 7y ago
  Bringing a loaded gun with you is a good way to end up dead.
  - yspeak 7y ago
    What how does that work logically or in reality ? Good guy has no gun, bad guy does, 100% good guy gets robbed, raped, kidnapped, or killed. Good guy has gun, bad guy runs away most of time or sometimes gets killed or captured or otherwise stopped some of time, or sometimes robs, rapes, or kills good guy despite good guy gun some of time. 100% of time I like the second scenario. "Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was 'used' by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies. ... Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008."cdc see https://www.investors.com/politics/columnists/how-many-lives-are-saved-by-guns-and-why-dont-gun-controllers-care/ https://www.investors.com/politics/columnists/how-many-lives...
  - plankers 7y ago
    Well it's not very useful without the bullets.
  - LifeLiverTransp 7y ago
    Yes, but the criminal always has first draw, first action. Unless the criminal is a bad shot or otherwise unlucky, you just escalate a situation in which you are already on the losing end of a stick. Just explain to me the game theory plus of a main-street battle, where the bad guy already holds you at gun point- and you have the chance to accelerate towards the bitter end?

ape4 7y ago

It's odd that this still isn't available. If you just want to drive for Uber for a couple hours you don't want to be taken to the other side of town

MuffinFlavored 7y ago
How profitable is "just driving Uber for a couple of hours"?
- c0vfefe 7y ago
  Not speaking from experience, but the earnings seem relatively linear. Two hours a week would tend towards the thirty hrs/wk hourly rate, I'd think.