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Uber Knows Exactly When You'll Pay Surge Pricing (yahoo.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Uber has figured out exactly when you are more likely to pay double or triple the cost of your ride: when your phone battery is low. Uber's head of economic research, Keith Chen, recently told NPR on an episode of The Hidden Brain podcast that people are willing to accept up to 9.9 times surge pricing if their phones are about to go dead. Data about user batteries is collected because the app uses that information to know when to switch into low-power mode. The idea being: If you really need to get where you're going, you'll pay just about anything (or at least 9.9 times anything) to ensure you're getting a ride home and won't be stranded. A person with a more fully charged device has time to wait and see if the surge pricing goes down.The company insists that it won't use this information against you.
The idea being: If you really need to get where you're going, you'll pay just about anything (or at least 9.9 times anything) to ensure you're getting a ride home and won't be stranded. A person with a more fully charged device has time to wait and see if the surge pricing goes down.
No, I'd bring up google, find the number to the local cab company, call them, and get a ride. D'uh!
Secondly, WTF is it with Uber? Just to go to the pool 3x a week would cost me about $450+/- per month - it runs about $20 each way. Add in other places i frequent and it'd be cheaper to buy a Tesla Model S - including insurance and taxes.
Good for Uber, if really true.
In a free market — and this aspect of it remains reasonably free in the US — the price of everything is the amount a buyer is willing to pay.
Keep your batteries charged.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
"The company insists that it won't use this information against you."
Yeah, that's the ticket.
Forgot the "YET" at the end of that sentence.
That's why I only use pay phones when I am not at home...
I can't wait until they start doing things like "Oh, you're in a bad part of town - you're going to pay even more!", "Oh, you're leaving an event of some kind - you're going to pay even more!", "Oh, you're a woman/ethnic minority/religious minority - . . ." . . .
Sorry to hear about you're driver taking you for a ride - that's what you paid for, right?
A company is promising they wont take advantage of a way to charge you 10x more for their service?
Is there a way to turn off the battery monitoring on their app by any chance?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"The company insists that it won't use this information against you."
Heh! There goes another keyboard!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Use whatever information you have at your disposal to maximize the value of what you are selling, even if that information is surreptitiously obtained.
At least in the US, exploiting that particular style of price optimization quite often breaks the law:
Price gouging is a pejorative term referring to when a seller spikes the prices of goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair, and is considered exploitative, potentially to an unethical extent.
It's an app to call a taxi... there is nothing amazing there, stop try to pretend it's some earth changing app.
Driverless cars will be here soon and Uber will more or less have no place other than being a mostly valueless middleman. Why would anyone want to subsidize Uber when they are hailing a driverless taxi?
Either Uber should have little value because they do almost nothing and there is NO LONG TERM FUTURE in human driven taxis. Anyone can make an app to hail the closest taxi service.
Uber is one of these cases of vastly overvalued IT stock that has 80% of it's value from it's mysterious business model that may or maynot scale. Uber is all about getting cheap drivers, but as I said, driverless cars will make their entire business model look stupid. Nobody will want to pay extra for an Uber driver who has managed to climb the rungs life all the way up to outsourcing their car to money.. when they can just have a car pick them up all Knight Rider style.
They will trust the car more than the random low wage uber 'entrepreneur'.
Soo.... good luck with your continued obsession over Uber. Maybe they will release a cold fusion powered Uber app soon to make up for the fact that their business has no real value and at some point that bubble will burst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89hkmQKx9p4
Also I finally understand why rap is so popular.
Deny their app the privilidge on Marshmallow 6.0, or, fake a Broadcast in the Android API and let it think you have full battery capacity.
I bet if the cops search and seizure all the cars nearby my house right now, they will find a illegal stuuf - But... This is "Brazil".
This is why you install apps for traditional cabs, like Curb. There will be an inflection point where you call somewhere else. But I get it ... if your battery is low, you're less likely to risk "shopping around". So Uber is still ominous.
The biggest factor for my decision to pay surge pricing is whether it is raining or not. Matching precipitation at my location and surge pricing acceptance would show a 100% correlation. I handle rain about as well as a bowl of sugar.
If someone has financial difficulties and likes fancy lifestyle, that person will very likely become a spy.
Knowing about you, even if it is metadata, tells you a lot.
I know, I know, you are wondering how Uber can be so stupid.
It's jealousy. Uber wants to compete! Microsoft is evil; only the Enterprise version of Windows 10 is sensible to use, and Microsoft won't sell that version to most people.
Google and Facebook are tracking everyone and selling the information, and taking more and more control. It's a competition to see who can be most evil.
Maybe Adobe is selling vulnerabilities to the U.S. government. If not, how can Adobe be so sloppy? Maybe TrueCrypt disappeared because Microsoft has given the U.S. government a back door to Microsoft operating systems, and no authoritarian gov wants excellent encryption.
Poor Uber! How can a smaller company compete?
IMO.
"The company insists that it won't use this information against you."
Lol, that's a hoot! Oh gawd, tell me another one!
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
We are easy to find — just go, where truth is.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Could you elaborate on what this means? Do you wish for companies to be controlled by voters rather than shareholders? Or something completely different?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Uber's surge pricing is the same as paying for a REAL towncar service. I'll pay for a towncar and ride in comfort and style.
Uber is banking on people being stupid and not know about alternatives.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Free market in a civilized society can only be free to a degree, cf. Martin Shkreli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli and Daraprim. One can start charging $10 / gal for gas in a hurricane evacuation zone but must be prepared that the indignant public will trample their establishment over and get the fuel for free...
through information Uber accidentally shared with ME, I stopped them from unfairly learning the state of my mobile's battery!
After I signed up for their service, the Uber webpage asked me to install an Android app I've never seen the source code for. (actually, send me to a 'Play store' web page for a 'Play store' program I've never installed or seen the source code for.)
There was no clear way to use their service without this program. (No website, no phone# to call)
I went back to my web browser, searched for and called a local cab company. $13 and 20min later I was at my destination, easy! Take that Uber! : )
while(batt > 0.1) { } show_prices();
When you have a captive audience, you can charge the hell out of them. Movie theaters with concession stands. Vending machines at convention centers. And... drum roll, please... Uber cars with dying cellphones. On that note, don't expect Uber cars to offer plugins to recharge cellphones.
I have never used one of these ride sharing companies but, if I chose to, I would pay whatever it costs. You have a choice, you can use a service (any service) or not use it. That service is and should be allowed to set their prices however they want. If you installed the app, then you consented to them collecting certain information. You can continue to use the app (and the service) knowing that they collect certain data or you can remove the app and not use the service. The choice is yours. If you don't want them charging premium rates due to data they have collected or for any other reason that they choose to raise the price, then vote with your wallet and don't use them, call a taxi instead.
They have every right to charge whatever they want and to set those prices however they want just like you have the choice of using their services or not.
People with iPhones get quotes for hotel reservations higher than Android.
Dude, that was in 2000. Sixteen years ago.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
"Data about user batteries is collected because the app uses that information to know when to switch into low-power mode."
This is what really scars me. Every app collects lots of data on one or the other pretext and then they use this data for entirely different and highly invasive purpose. Google reads your chat and email. Next what, it will start showing diaper ads when it determines you are pregnant? Uber can start charging 10 times when your battery is low. Maybe google and uber can collaborate and determine when you are running late for your flight and surge the price to 10 times as well.
The funny thing is that, gadget minded young generation don't care. For them, the corporations are benevolent dictators.
The company insists that it won't use this information against you.
Ahahahahahahahahahaha! Ha!
The company insists that it won't use this information against you.
Yep, sure. It won't be used *against* you. Not at all. It will be used for your convenience, to make it easier for you to find a ride at competitive price. Don't worry, we'll find a positive spin to put on it in the future. We don't want a publicity shitstorm, no siree! These are not the droids you are looking for.
In other news, your phone now gets mysteriously hot when you leave the home.
People with iPhones get quotes for hotel reservations higher than Android.
Dude, that was in 2000. Sixteen years ago.
Amazing time travel story: Using an IPhone for hotel reservations 7 years before it was released. Do your homework before posting.
Now can we please figure out a system where stealing from people isn't legal for corporations?
"We absolutely don't use that to kind of like push you a higher surge price"
Then exactly how do they know that you will pay up 9.9 times more if they haven't used it? Or is it that they don't use it against you anymore? Or are they just lying?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Except when the same thing happens in an eBay auction.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
Supply and demand would like to have a word with your interpretation of "price gouging." If there are 100 people wanting to get a ride via Uber, but only 25 Uber drivers currently roaming the streets, 75 people are going to have to wait a long time, 50 of them a really long time, and 25 of them a really really long time.
If demand for a product exceeds supply, the market responds by increasing the price to encourage more production of supply. Uber raises the price, and suddenly 25 Uber drivers who were instead having dinner decide to head out to the streets and pick those people up. They raise the price some more and 25 drivers who were settling in to watch their favorite TV show decide to DVR it instead and head out to pick up people. They raise it even more and 25 drivers who were about to get some nookie decide it can wait and head out to pick up people. And the 100 people wanting rides don't have to wait.
As for reading the battery level, there are two ways to interpret it. One is that Uber is using info that shouldn't be available to them to price gouge you.
The other is the Uber notices your phone's battery is about to die, and as a courtesy raises your fare to encourage the next free driver to go pick you up instead of the Uber customer closest to him. That way you're more likely to get a ride before your phone dies and you're unable to call for another ride or coordinate if your location was somehow incorrect. (This isn't to say Uber is completely innocent in all this. Ideally, their surge and low-battery pricing would give you the option of paying the higher price, or just waiting for a regular ride at the regular price. In fact, that's probably the perfect market model - allow people wanting rides to bid how much they're willing to pay. Drivers can them pick them up according to how close the pickup is and how much they'll be paid. And the price will naturally arrive at the "correct" level for supply, demand, and urgency.)
The answer is never, because I don't use Uber.
...Federal Trade Commission should not be accepting money from us because they don't provide meaningful benefit for the American people.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Because if not, there is a trivial workaround...
Buy one of those portable USB charge extenders, plug your phone into that, and the phone will believe it is charging. Unplug it once you have established a set fare.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Except that according to the laws you are referencing, this ISN'T price gouging. Even the wikipedia definition you referenced makes it pretty clear that this doesn't qualify as price gouging.
"Uber has figured out exactly when you are more likely to pay double or triple"
You need it.
Just askin'.
We all know how that ended, right?
May I now laugh loudly, yet again, at all the people who claim they "have nothing to hide"?
I will say it over and over and over again- knowledge and data are POWER. You can't predict how or when it will be used against you, and thus the need for privacy is very IMPORTANT. People really need to wake up about this stuff. It is unacceptable how much data Google, Apple, Microsoft, web sites, phone vendors, employers, government agencies, etc, have about you.
And I will also remind everyone that just because a business or government SAYS they won't do this or that with the information they collect is absolutely no guarantee they will either now or in the future... and especially when the information is stolen, lost, shared, or hacked. The only truly safe information you have is that you don't give to anyone.
A republic -is- a type of democracy, Mr. Pedant.
A republic is -not-, however, a -direct democracy-, which happens to be yet another type of democracy.
Please disabuse yourself of the notion that the USA is not a democracy, and quit telling other people this tripe.
More detailed explanation from a law professor below:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/13/is-the-united-states-of-america-a-republic-or-a-democracy/
OK, I admit I rarely use Uber and can't remember the last time I used a taxi, but at 9.9x the price, surely the cost of just calling for a taxi becomes much cheaper?
I'm all for it, if having a low battery means I get gouged, but a full battery means they'll entice me with competitive pricing. Easy discount.
Apple doesn't allow apps to see your battery status.
which is why I use my crap-ass netbook to look for fares, not the apple.
And that wheel's value will drop by 25% the moment Gork rolls out of the neolithic wheel dealership! Gork should have leased!!
Supply and demand would like to have a word with your interpretation of "price gouging."
What does battery condition have to do with "supply and demand"?
as a courtesy raises your fare
I half took you seriously until that gem - Get your corporate master's dick out of your mouth before trying to talk again, 'kay?
> and as a courtesy raises your fare
Well, putting aside the fact that this whole story is about them saying that they won't do that, there's nothing courteous about that. Being courteous would be asking you whether you'd like to pay more to encourage a ride to come sooner, and to present you with that option regardless of whether your battery is low.
Hell, that should probably always be the case. I mean, say you need to get somewhere today, but it really doesn't matter when you get there... Wouldn't it make sense to put in a lower bid for the ride such that no one takes it until they happen to be dropping someone off in your area and so it's more convenient for them to pick you up?
> Supply and demand would like to have a word with your interpretation of "price gouging."
Sadly, the people making these laws don't care. They just see milk selling for $10/gallon and think "there ought to be a law..."
The crazy thing is that the price gouging is likely to actually help the situation. Not only, as everyone else always mentions, does it encourage conservation of local resources, but it also encourages people outside the local area to bring in more supplies, and it even encourages local people in an area that may be hit by a disaster to put in the effort to stockpile supplies, since if the supplies are needed then they "win," and that offsets the expense of stockpiling the supplies in the event that the disaster doesn't hit. Such laws against price gouging are effectively telling these people not to stockpile supplies in case of emergency because they won't be allowed to profit from their foresight, and thus such efforts are at best break-even and likely to result in a loss when they stockpile supplies only to end up with a stockpile of supplies they have to liquidate at a loss.
So basically surge pricing will follow the same concept as fast food.
People who are living min to min, always running late, living paycheck to paycheck are likely folks letting their phones run til the end from habit of lack of planning. And likely dependent on the service cause it normally cheap (like fast food).
And look were most fast food joints are located to exploit their customers......
Sure the 1% does not have a problem paying surge pricing, cause they can afford to be ignorant. That's likely not the majority...
Permissions on phone apps should allow users to force OS to report fake information to the apps if the apps won't install without being allowed to have those permissions.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
are people too stupid to go into the nearest restaurant and ask to borrow a charger cord-every employee in those places packs a phone and half of them are charging them at any 1 time