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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 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.
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.
Why is that an Uber problem? If you take a taxi to the pool 3x a week, is that going to be much cheaper? Why are you paying for rides to the pool 3x a week anyway?
This just in: if you use Uber to drive you 10 miles to and from work every day, it's going to cut into your budget.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
In other news, your phone now gets mysteriously hot when you leave the home.