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Uber claims that New Years Eve is their highest traffic day. I could imagine they might override the surge algorithm (or give it a nudge) to provide a more cons
by skuhn 12y ago
Uber claims that New Years Eve is their highest traffic day. I could imagine they might override the surge algorithm (or give it a nudge) to provide a more consistent price based on their historical data.
I've encountered a number of situations where Uber's surge prices annoyed people not simply by how expensive it was, but because the person standing next to them got 2.5x and if they had waited another 10 minutes they might get 1.25x or 8x. The non-repeatability can be frustrating and feel unfair.
However, just because NYE 2014 naturally surged to 4.5x doesn't mean that NYE 2015 will, because things change. Not the least of which is the (small, but vocal) backlash against Uber that this article is a part of.
- joezydeco 12y agoUber claims that New Years Eve is their highest traffic day But that was in previous years, right? A lot of things have happened in the last 12 months to change this NYE's outcome: more competition, more of their own cars on the street, a year of bad publicity against Uber, and then telling everyone that there will be surge pricing in effect (instead of letting it happen algorithmically)? How is anyone surprised by the outcome?
- untog 12y agoIt probably speaks (at least partially) to the culture at Uber - that data and algorithms rule all. For the most part that's correct, but things often get unpredictable when you involve humans - no matter how fair surge pricing is when looking at the data, if people feel like it is unfair, they'll object. Right now I don't think Uber does a good job at, for want of a less fluffy term, "feeling sentiment". They're extremely good at parsing past data and extracting conclusions, but that's about it.
- kenzokai 12y ago> that data and algorithms rule all Well actually they don't because they overrode the algorithm instead of letting it do its job. The culture at Uber is actually "greed".
- untog 12y agoWell, that's what we think they did. We don't know that. But even still, if it were true it does just highlight that when they're not relying on existing data they really don't have good instincts.
- krapp 12y agoIf people felt Uber's price was too high, regardless of the calculus, I'd put the blame for that on Uber. People had other more affordable options available and they used them, rather than deal with Uber's surge rate. That's not unpredictable, that actually quite rational.