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I had never heard of UberCheats until now. Remember the Uber app actually routes the driver from pickup to pickup so they know exactly how much they have travel

I had never heard of UberCheats until now. Remember the Uber app actually routes the driver from pickup to pickup so they know exactly how much they have traveled. Seriously, Uber, "as the crow flies" instead of the actual distance traveled? This will I fear, quite happily, will unleash the Streisand effect on UberCheats. Uber bans UberCheats and founder savvily decides to fight it instead of relaunching under a new name. I predict he will end up with a seed round. Uber will end up with more reputation as being UberDark - as in we pick the dark pattern every time we can because why not.

Jommi 6y ago
Why are you believing that part of the article? Trust me, Uber 100% routes using gmaps/their own maps hybrid and calculates distance from that. It's an IMMENSLY complex calculation that will never be the same and thus gets driver complains all the time. Then the support team (at least used to) kindly show what caused the discrepancy and potentially adjusts the payout. Source: Worked at and studied ridehailing apps for few years.
- piva00 6y ago
  Is it really an immensely complex calculation? I worked with GIS for maps, fleet tracking, route optimisation, logistics and so on for quite a number of years. Yes, the traveling salesman problem is NP-hard and not completely solvable with current computation but... Approximations of it are actually quite feasible, and have been since way before I worked with GIS in 2005 as the platform we vendored had these features since late 90s, early 2000s. I can completely understand that the algorithm for driver selection/matching and calculations of possible different routes for those drivers between them and possible passengers can be quite complex, it also sounds a bit into the realm of the knapsack problem (weighing in all the different passengers and drivers to given an optimal set of matches) but I don't see necessarily how the route calculation/prediction with distance would be an immensely complex one. And I'm completely open to gain more knowledge in this area to understand it and prove my naive assumptions of the problem domain wrong, feel free to shoot me down.
  - Jommi 6y ago
    The route itself not the most complex calculation, but true complexity resides in that how do you make the result is OK with both driver, rider and uber. All kinds of things happen as you don't know the preferences of everyone in the system (does the rider want to get to the place as fast as possible, or as cheaply as possible?) and because choosing the most optimal route has random variance (stop lights, traffic etc.) Also, there are multiple different pricing models at work constantly, at the same time, in different areas. Some country might use a "taxi-meter-simulator" type methodology where the actual route of the driver is mapped via constant GPS and other positioning technology. This introduces the randomness of a certain % of GPS errors, which need to be corrected manually. Other option might be a fixed price that is estimated upfront and agreed upon by both rider and driver. Or sometimes the the fixed price is only agreed upon by the rider, and the driver gets paid via the "taximeter-style" method. And after all this, if you want to take into account things like how to translate a pin position or restaurant name into the best possible GPS position? How to optimize what driver is the best to pickup the passenger? The lower rated driver that is close or the 5 star that is far? Can we change optimal drivers on the fly? And it goes on and on, deeper and deeper.
- haltingproblem 6y ago
  > Why are you believing that part of the article? Trust me, Uber 100% routes using gmaps/their own maps hybrid and calculates distance from that. Your post sounds like a troll. But ok. A Uber contractor launches a plugin to show how Uber is shortchanging drivers because he claims he was shortchanged. Then Uber issues a takedown of that tool and you want us to trust you because you worked at Uber.
  - Jommi 6y ago
    I never worked at Uber. I just followed them very closely. The plugin AIMS to do what you said. What it actually does is something else.
sn_master 6y ago
What's the alternative? Hooking up to the car's OBD II port to get the data from there directly like some insurance companies do?
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  They already use GPS your whole trip. They know how far you went.

Jommi 6y ago

Why are you believing that part of the article? Trust me, Uber 100% routes using gmaps/their own maps hybrid and calculates distance from that. It's an IMMENSLY complex calculation that will never be the same and thus gets driver complains all the time. Then the support team (at least used to) kindly show what caused the discrepancy and potentially adjusts the payout. Source: Worked at and studied ridehailing apps for few years.

piva00 6y ago
Is it really an immensely complex calculation? I worked with GIS for maps, fleet tracking, route optimisation, logistics and so on for quite a number of years. Yes, the traveling salesman problem is NP-hard and not completely solvable with current computation but... Approximations of it are actually quite feasible, and have been since way before I worked with GIS in 2005 as the platform we vendored had these features since late 90s, early 2000s. I can completely understand that the algorithm for driver selection/matching and calculations of possible different routes for those drivers between them and possible passengers can be quite complex, it also sounds a bit into the realm of the knapsack problem (weighing in all the different passengers and drivers to given an optimal set of matches) but I don't see necessarily how the route calculation/prediction with distance would be an immensely complex one. And I'm completely open to gain more knowledge in this area to understand it and prove my naive assumptions of the problem domain wrong, feel free to shoot me down.
- Jommi 6y ago
  The route itself not the most complex calculation, but true complexity resides in that how do you make the result is OK with both driver, rider and uber. All kinds of things happen as you don't know the preferences of everyone in the system (does the rider want to get to the place as fast as possible, or as cheaply as possible?) and because choosing the most optimal route has random variance (stop lights, traffic etc.) Also, there are multiple different pricing models at work constantly, at the same time, in different areas. Some country might use a "taxi-meter-simulator" type methodology where the actual route of the driver is mapped via constant GPS and other positioning technology. This introduces the randomness of a certain % of GPS errors, which need to be corrected manually. Other option might be a fixed price that is estimated upfront and agreed upon by both rider and driver. Or sometimes the the fixed price is only agreed upon by the rider, and the driver gets paid via the "taximeter-style" method. And after all this, if you want to take into account things like how to translate a pin position or restaurant name into the best possible GPS position? How to optimize what driver is the best to pickup the passenger? The lower rated driver that is close or the 5 star that is far? Can we change optimal drivers on the fly? And it goes on and on, deeper and deeper.
haltingproblem 6y ago
> Why are you believing that part of the article? Trust me, Uber 100% routes using gmaps/their own maps hybrid and calculates distance from that. Your post sounds like a troll. But ok. A Uber contractor launches a plugin to show how Uber is shortchanging drivers because he claims he was shortchanged. Then Uber issues a takedown of that tool and you want us to trust you because you worked at Uber.
- Jommi 6y ago
  I never worked at Uber. I just followed them very closely. The plugin AIMS to do what you said. What it actually does is something else.

sn_master 6y ago

What's the alternative? Hooking up to the car's OBD II port to get the data from there directly like some insurance companies do?

colejohnson66 6y ago
They already use GPS your whole trip. They know how far you went.