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I love that it’s one app. I remember landing in Delhi from San Francisco and the Uber app worked perfectly and I was so astonished. Effectively nothing else tra

I love that it’s one app. I remember landing in Delhi from San Francisco and the Uber app worked perfectly and I was so astonished. Effectively nothing else translates seamlessly like that. Combined with the incredible quality control on the vehicles side (every car I got in India had a seatbelt, where close to 0 taxis you’d get on the street would), I knew it was a very high functioning company to execute like this.

ForHackernews 6y ago
This is such a non-feature for 99% of users. The fact that Uber devotes engineering resources to serving the tiny 1% slice of users who care about having an app that works seamlessly across dozens of countries, at the expense of the much larger number of users with limited space on their outdated devices, is really emblematic of the Valley's out-of-whack priorities.
- spoonjim 6y ago
  That 1% of users represents a lot more than 1% of profit, and engineering an application that is that robust across scenarios has benefits to the stationary users transiting through multiple scenarios as well (surge pricing to normal, credit card to Apple Pay, car ride to scooter ride, etc).
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  > This is such a non-feature for 99% of users. I would imagine that travellers are an outsized percentage of high spenders, even if they are a small portion of users.
  - ChrisKingWebDev 6y ago
    I would agree with this. At home I walk, ride my bike, get on transit, rent a carshare etc. When I'm travelling, I'm walking or calling an Uber/Lyft. I'll take a train or bus only if it's super easy to navigate.
    - MattGaiser 6y ago
      I spent a lot of 2018/2019 travelling around North America. It was wonderful to never have to consider a taxi.
    - rsj_hn 6y ago
      Same here. In my local area I understand the transit. I have a transit card. But when I am in a foreign city that speaks a different language these are not realistic options unless I spend effort on figuring that out and deal with local municipal transit authorities, which is not the vacation experience I am looking for.
  - ljf 6y ago
    Totally this. It isn't uncommon for a whales (usually 1 to 2 percent of an apps users) to account for 30 to 50 percent of their profit. So it is very worth thinking of those customers first. Not all customers are equal. And if you build your app or site without knowing that you may well chase the wrong features.
  - StreamBright 6y ago
    As a frequent traveller, I would be much more inclined to either pick the airports that are going to be relevant to me ever or pick the destination airport when I am at the source airport which Uber can easily detect. I am visiting ~10-15 airports most of the time. I would be happy to spend some time to set this up on my phone so i not need to waste a huge amount of space and bandwidth every time that I update Uber. For Uber it would be a win too, reducing the size of the app significantly. Maybe it is only me.
    - bobbylarrybobby 6y ago
      Don’t app updates only push deltas anyway? It’s only the initial install that’s large.
    - Bjartr 6y ago
      A willingness to put in some time up front to tailor a technology experience to yourself is one thing that separates the average HN user from the population at large. For a significant majority of users, if it doesn't work well out of the gate, it's broken.
      - MattGaiser 6y ago
        Even as an avid Hacker News user, I wouldn't tailor an app download to save bandwidth/space. Both of those are abundant.
- ssdspoimdsjvv 6y ago
  I don't have any numbers, but I would guess that a good part of Uber's user base consists of people that travel often. Not having to download a new app or update every time you go to a different country is a huge advantage.
- NikolaNovak 6y ago
  Interesting assumption/perspective - The only people in my circle of friends and co-workers who use Uber, are travelers. And nobody I know has a clue of their phone storage or has hit it due to apps (as opposed to videos/photos). For some, Taxi works well enough and is (perceived as) licensed/trusted/reliable so they don't have a need to use Uber. Others are bit of Luddites, or mistrustful. But I guess friction of Taxi / benefits of Uber just aren't high enough :-/ (Personally, I've only ever used Uber on specific travels; for 99% of my transactions, Taxi has been easier/more reliable. Don't get me wrong, I think Taxi licensing/medalion model is outdated, the drivers have worked incentives, and cars aren't as maintained as well as they could be. But I still normally don't find a benefit in Ubering). Finally, FWIW, even traveling within country, I've noticed significantly different screens/features/options in, say, Ottawa or Toronto airports and vicinity. So I think overall a lot more people benefit from this monolithic model than may be immediately apparent.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    I'm in the same boat. To a first approximation, I never use Uber in my local metro area. To a second approximation, I don't use it much traveling either. I'll often grab a cab if it's convenient rather than waiting for an Uber/Lyft to show up. Or if there's a good public transit option to my hotel I'll use that. In spite of (normally) 100+ days of travel per year I maybe use Uber a dozen times a year. (I do use a private car service to take me to the airport, but again Uber wouldn't be very good for that purpose.)
- manigandham 6y ago
  It's much more complicated than just countries. If you read the linked comment then you'll learn that it's includes many regional customizations, even down to specific cities and airports. An app for travel should absolutely prioritize UX and ease of use as you travel, however far away your destination is.
- minhazm 6y ago
  It's not even just per country. If you fly to certain airports in certain states they have different rules that affect what the Uber app can do. Do they maintain a separate app for Washington and for New York? It gets pretty messy pretty quickly. Not only do you have to maintain these different edge cases, but you also need to maintain separate applications and all of the problems associated with that like keeping libraries and API's in sync between them.
  - corin_ 6y ago
    I'm probably missing something obvious as I'm tired, but why does the Uber app need stuff like specific airport rules stored in it rather than pulled from their servers when needed? Map apps let you look at any city in the world without needing all of that data inside the core app, and if you have enough data to use the Uber app wouldn't you almost certainly also be fine to have it download in the background the required info (coordinates of where pickup is or isn't allowed, specific instructions message to display, etc.) the same as it receives information about local pricing, location of available cars nearby and so on?
    - ameen 6y ago
      Connectivity at airports is not the best - if you’re on an expensive data plan those extra MBs cost a pretty penny which might put off the customer. You need to think about the larger picture.
      - viraptor 6y ago
        Give the streaming of location data for cars in the area, I don't think they care much about those extra MBs. If they did, you'd get a "N cars within X km of you", not a live-ish map. A quick summary like "extra fee for airport pickup: X, pickup location restricted to: Y, etc." should be pretty comparable.
        plorkyeran 6y ago
        A live map of cars near you takes an incredibly small amount of data. Once you have the map data that'd be easily doable over a dialup connection.
- Cederfjard 6y ago
  Why are you assuming that splitting it into multiple apps would require less engineering resources than keeping just one?
- ryanlol 6y ago
  There’s me, a frequent traveller who uses UberLUX 4+ times a day, spending more than 5000GBP/mo. Then there are 100 guys with outdated devices who use UberX once or twice a month to get back home from the pub, probably splitting the ride with their friends. I bring in more money than the latter group of people.
  - Marsymars 6y ago
    I’m a bit surprised you have the time for UberLUX. When I find myself with an expense account for Uber I always go for the lowest ETA, which is rarely Uber Premium. You must be hanging out in richer places than me.
    - ryanlol 6y ago
      In central London it’s never much further away than the cheaper options, the cars are actually nice (S-class 90% of the time) unlike in the US.
- offtop5 6y ago
  Au contraire, people with outdated phones are less likely to be able to afford to Ubers. Much of Uber's profit comes from people booking Ubers from airports, I've used Uber all over the world and it's absolutely amazing.
  - diebeforei485 6y ago
    All sorts of people use UberX and Uber Pool, actually. Uber Pool is no longer available due to covid; but hopefully it will come back as vaccination rates go up.
wdb 6y ago
Personally, I would download whatever the dominating hailing app is in the country. Most of the time its cheaper than Uber like Grab in parts of Asia
- reader_mode 6y ago
  If you're landing in Asia from the US you're probably not going to care about the price (there are exceptions), and Uber has been reliable for me travelling, if that costs a few % more than the local version I'd be happy to pay for convenience.
  - ProAm 6y ago
    > Uber has been reliable for me travelling Unless India? [1] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/08/uber-executive-had-no-reason-to-obtain-victims-medical-records-says-police-official https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/08/uber-exec...
gcbirzan 6y ago
> every car I got in India had a seatbelt That sounds so weird to me... What do you mean cars don't have seat belts?!
- jscholes 6y ago
  > That sounds so weird to me... What do you mean cars don't have seat belts?! I can confirm the OP's experience albeit in a different country (Mexico). In some regions, I haven't been in a single street taxi with working seat belts. Indeed, I've been in some private cars without them as well, or with more physical space for passengers than there were seat belts available. Uber vehicles, though, have always provided those safety features. Some drivers work as both street taxi and Uber drivers (as they frequently cross into or live in regions without Uber but drive people to places that have it), so that quality assurance can trickle down in some cases. It honestly goes beyond seat belts though; a Uber car is more likely to have AC, electric windows, etc. than your average taxi, even in ridiculously hot parts of the country.
- pradn 6y ago
  People have even chuckled when I reached to put a seatbelt on in India. :)
  - ameen 6y ago
    Not sure what to make of this. I’m Indian and the last time I was in India, there was strict execution of the seatbelt law and offenders were made to wait and fined heavily. Most drivers were wearing seatbelts. Maybe because it was in Chennai, a southern state and not in Mumbai or Delhi.
    - Liquid_Fire 6y ago
      Sounds plausible. I was in Delhi a couple of years ago, using mostly Ola (Uber didn't seem to like my non-Indian card, strangely enough) and most of them did not have seat belts at all.
      - 6y ago
Borlands 6y ago
Exactly same experience, from San Fran to Singapore and in between. Never really realised how good we have it, such a good point
- JimDabell 6y ago
  That’s no longer possible now because Uber withdrew from South-East Asia. You can use Grab and Gojek in Singapore, but they don’t operate in the USA.
dliff 6y ago
While I had a positive experience with the Uber app software-wise (app functioned seamlessly landing in Mumbai from U.S.A.), Uber as a service was not really comparable to what it is like in the U.S. and developed W. European countries. I got the sense that it was more of a strictly ride hailing / request service, not much accountability required from the driver. Often had > 3 drivers cancel after 10-15 minutes waiting before actually getting a ride. That being said, it was still a hugely valuable service to have in India as a foreigner.
- spoonjim 6y ago
  Uber India isn’t like Uber New York but it’s a million times more reliable and predictable than almost any other commercial service you can get in India.
  - jawzz 6y ago
    Really? Seems like it’d be more reliable and a lot faster to just hop in one of the hundred rickshaws on every street. Besides the fact that they’ll overcharge you if you’re a tourist.
    - spoonjim 6y ago
      Have you seen those things in an accident? I can easily afford the Uber with seatbelts and I am not going to trust my life to a three wheeler.
      - mrmonkeyman 6y ago
        They drive like maniacs but they drive at 10mph. You won't die.
    - notsureaboutpg 6y ago
      It's cheaper and faster but not at all more reliable. That's the tradeoff. Like the other poster said, autos do not handle accidents well and in major metro areas of India accidents are common. I've ridden in them, will keep riding in them, but it's a risk you can pay to avoid.
ramraj07 6y ago
You should have come pre covid then. Ubers ecosystem in India has kinda collapsed, driver quality and availability has gone way down as more and more realize how bad a deal it is. Almost every driver I've spoken to here confirms that they are in terrible debt and have not made any money at all driving uber.
perryizgr8 6y ago
Same here when I went from Bangalore to Houston. Amazing seamless experience.

ForHackernews 6y ago

This is such a non-feature for 99% of users. The fact that Uber devotes engineering resources to serving the tiny 1% slice of users who care about having an app that works seamlessly across dozens of countries, at the expense of the much larger number of users with limited space on their outdated devices, is really emblematic of the Valley's out-of-whack priorities.

spoonjim 6y ago
That 1% of users represents a lot more than 1% of profit, and engineering an application that is that robust across scenarios has benefits to the stationary users transiting through multiple scenarios as well (surge pricing to normal, credit card to Apple Pay, car ride to scooter ride, etc).
MattGaiser 6y ago
> This is such a non-feature for 99% of users. I would imagine that travellers are an outsized percentage of high spenders, even if they are a small portion of users.
- ChrisKingWebDev 6y ago
  I would agree with this. At home I walk, ride my bike, get on transit, rent a carshare etc. When I'm travelling, I'm walking or calling an Uber/Lyft. I'll take a train or bus only if it's super easy to navigate.
  - MattGaiser 6y ago
    I spent a lot of 2018/2019 travelling around North America. It was wonderful to never have to consider a taxi.
  - rsj_hn 6y ago
    Same here. In my local area I understand the transit. I have a transit card. But when I am in a foreign city that speaks a different language these are not realistic options unless I spend effort on figuring that out and deal with local municipal transit authorities, which is not the vacation experience I am looking for.
- ljf 6y ago
  Totally this. It isn't uncommon for a whales (usually 1 to 2 percent of an apps users) to account for 30 to 50 percent of their profit. So it is very worth thinking of those customers first. Not all customers are equal. And if you build your app or site without knowing that you may well chase the wrong features.
- StreamBright 6y ago
  As a frequent traveller, I would be much more inclined to either pick the airports that are going to be relevant to me ever or pick the destination airport when I am at the source airport which Uber can easily detect. I am visiting ~10-15 airports most of the time. I would be happy to spend some time to set this up on my phone so i not need to waste a huge amount of space and bandwidth every time that I update Uber. For Uber it would be a win too, reducing the size of the app significantly. Maybe it is only me.
  - bobbylarrybobby 6y ago
    Don’t app updates only push deltas anyway? It’s only the initial install that’s large.
  - Bjartr 6y ago
    A willingness to put in some time up front to tailor a technology experience to yourself is one thing that separates the average HN user from the population at large. For a significant majority of users, if it doesn't work well out of the gate, it's broken.
    - MattGaiser 6y ago
      Even as an avid Hacker News user, I wouldn't tailor an app download to save bandwidth/space. Both of those are abundant.
ssdspoimdsjvv 6y ago
I don't have any numbers, but I would guess that a good part of Uber's user base consists of people that travel often. Not having to download a new app or update every time you go to a different country is a huge advantage.
NikolaNovak 6y ago
Interesting assumption/perspective - The only people in my circle of friends and co-workers who use Uber, are travelers. And nobody I know has a clue of their phone storage or has hit it due to apps (as opposed to videos/photos). For some, Taxi works well enough and is (perceived as) licensed/trusted/reliable so they don't have a need to use Uber. Others are bit of Luddites, or mistrustful. But I guess friction of Taxi / benefits of Uber just aren't high enough :-/ (Personally, I've only ever used Uber on specific travels; for 99% of my transactions, Taxi has been easier/more reliable. Don't get me wrong, I think Taxi licensing/medalion model is outdated, the drivers have worked incentives, and cars aren't as maintained as well as they could be. But I still normally don't find a benefit in Ubering). Finally, FWIW, even traveling within country, I've noticed significantly different screens/features/options in, say, Ottawa or Toronto airports and vicinity. So I think overall a lot more people benefit from this monolithic model than may be immediately apparent.
- ghaff 6y ago
  I'm in the same boat. To a first approximation, I never use Uber in my local metro area. To a second approximation, I don't use it much traveling either. I'll often grab a cab if it's convenient rather than waiting for an Uber/Lyft to show up. Or if there's a good public transit option to my hotel I'll use that. In spite of (normally) 100+ days of travel per year I maybe use Uber a dozen times a year. (I do use a private car service to take me to the airport, but again Uber wouldn't be very good for that purpose.)
manigandham 6y ago
It's much more complicated than just countries. If you read the linked comment then you'll learn that it's includes many regional customizations, even down to specific cities and airports. An app for travel should absolutely prioritize UX and ease of use as you travel, however far away your destination is.
minhazm 6y ago
It's not even just per country. If you fly to certain airports in certain states they have different rules that affect what the Uber app can do. Do they maintain a separate app for Washington and for New York? It gets pretty messy pretty quickly. Not only do you have to maintain these different edge cases, but you also need to maintain separate applications and all of the problems associated with that like keeping libraries and API's in sync between them.
- corin_ 6y ago
  I'm probably missing something obvious as I'm tired, but why does the Uber app need stuff like specific airport rules stored in it rather than pulled from their servers when needed? Map apps let you look at any city in the world without needing all of that data inside the core app, and if you have enough data to use the Uber app wouldn't you almost certainly also be fine to have it download in the background the required info (coordinates of where pickup is or isn't allowed, specific instructions message to display, etc.) the same as it receives information about local pricing, location of available cars nearby and so on?
  - ameen 6y ago
    Connectivity at airports is not the best - if you’re on an expensive data plan those extra MBs cost a pretty penny which might put off the customer. You need to think about the larger picture.
    - viraptor 6y ago
      Give the streaming of location data for cars in the area, I don't think they care much about those extra MBs. If they did, you'd get a "N cars within X km of you", not a live-ish map. A quick summary like "extra fee for airport pickup: X, pickup location restricted to: Y, etc." should be pretty comparable.
      - plorkyeran 6y ago
        A live map of cars near you takes an incredibly small amount of data. Once you have the map data that'd be easily doable over a dialup connection.
Cederfjard 6y ago
Why are you assuming that splitting it into multiple apps would require less engineering resources than keeping just one?
ryanlol 6y ago
There’s me, a frequent traveller who uses UberLUX 4+ times a day, spending more than 5000GBP/mo. Then there are 100 guys with outdated devices who use UberX once or twice a month to get back home from the pub, probably splitting the ride with their friends. I bring in more money than the latter group of people.
- Marsymars 6y ago
  I’m a bit surprised you have the time for UberLUX. When I find myself with an expense account for Uber I always go for the lowest ETA, which is rarely Uber Premium. You must be hanging out in richer places than me.
  - ryanlol 6y ago
    In central London it’s never much further away than the cheaper options, the cars are actually nice (S-class 90% of the time) unlike in the US.
offtop5 6y ago
Au contraire, people with outdated phones are less likely to be able to afford to Ubers. Much of Uber's profit comes from people booking Ubers from airports, I've used Uber all over the world and it's absolutely amazing.
- diebeforei485 6y ago
  All sorts of people use UberX and Uber Pool, actually. Uber Pool is no longer available due to covid; but hopefully it will come back as vaccination rates go up.

wdb 6y ago

Personally, I would download whatever the dominating hailing app is in the country. Most of the time its cheaper than Uber like Grab in parts of Asia

reader_mode 6y ago
If you're landing in Asia from the US you're probably not going to care about the price (there are exceptions), and Uber has been reliable for me travelling, if that costs a few % more than the local version I'd be happy to pay for convenience.
- ProAm 6y ago
  > Uber has been reliable for me travelling Unless India? [1] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/08/uber-executive-had-no-reason-to-obtain-victims-medical-records-says-police-official https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/08/uber-exec...

gcbirzan 6y ago

> every car I got in India had a seatbelt That sounds so weird to me... What do you mean cars don't have seat belts?!

jscholes 6y ago
> That sounds so weird to me... What do you mean cars don't have seat belts?! I can confirm the OP's experience albeit in a different country (Mexico). In some regions, I haven't been in a single street taxi with working seat belts. Indeed, I've been in some private cars without them as well, or with more physical space for passengers than there were seat belts available. Uber vehicles, though, have always provided those safety features. Some drivers work as both street taxi and Uber drivers (as they frequently cross into or live in regions without Uber but drive people to places that have it), so that quality assurance can trickle down in some cases. It honestly goes beyond seat belts though; a Uber car is more likely to have AC, electric windows, etc. than your average taxi, even in ridiculously hot parts of the country.
pradn 6y ago
People have even chuckled when I reached to put a seatbelt on in India. :)
- ameen 6y ago
  Not sure what to make of this. I’m Indian and the last time I was in India, there was strict execution of the seatbelt law and offenders were made to wait and fined heavily. Most drivers were wearing seatbelts. Maybe because it was in Chennai, a southern state and not in Mumbai or Delhi.
  - Liquid_Fire 6y ago
    Sounds plausible. I was in Delhi a couple of years ago, using mostly Ola (Uber didn't seem to like my non-Indian card, strangely enough) and most of them did not have seat belts at all.
    - 6y ago

Borlands 6y ago

Exactly same experience, from San Fran to Singapore and in between. Never really realised how good we have it, such a good point

JimDabell 6y ago
That’s no longer possible now because Uber withdrew from South-East Asia. You can use Grab and Gojek in Singapore, but they don’t operate in the USA.

dliff 6y ago

While I had a positive experience with the Uber app software-wise (app functioned seamlessly landing in Mumbai from U.S.A.), Uber as a service was not really comparable to what it is like in the U.S. and developed W. European countries. I got the sense that it was more of a strictly ride hailing / request service, not much accountability required from the driver. Often had > 3 drivers cancel after 10-15 minutes waiting before actually getting a ride. That being said, it was still a hugely valuable service to have in India as a foreigner.

spoonjim 6y ago
Uber India isn’t like Uber New York but it’s a million times more reliable and predictable than almost any other commercial service you can get in India.
- jawzz 6y ago
  Really? Seems like it’d be more reliable and a lot faster to just hop in one of the hundred rickshaws on every street. Besides the fact that they’ll overcharge you if you’re a tourist.
  - spoonjim 6y ago
    Have you seen those things in an accident? I can easily afford the Uber with seatbelts and I am not going to trust my life to a three wheeler.
    - mrmonkeyman 6y ago
      They drive like maniacs but they drive at 10mph. You won't die.
  - notsureaboutpg 6y ago
    It's cheaper and faster but not at all more reliable. That's the tradeoff. Like the other poster said, autos do not handle accidents well and in major metro areas of India accidents are common. I've ridden in them, will keep riding in them, but it's a risk you can pay to avoid.

ramraj07 6y ago

You should have come pre covid then. Ubers ecosystem in India has kinda collapsed, driver quality and availability has gone way down as more and more realize how bad a deal it is. Almost every driver I've spoken to here confirms that they are in terrible debt and have not made any money at all driving uber.

perryizgr8 6y ago

Same here when I went from Bangalore to Houston. Amazing seamless experience.