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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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
"just call a competitor and be on your way..."
False, no level playing field, no competition.
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.
Would you like to raise awareness of the truth? Or would you rather prevent the market from operating efficiently by hiding that information so you can extract a greater profit?
There's a difference between libertarians and "I've got mine you're on your own"ians. The ones who actively call for distorting the market to protect their business arrangements don't fall in the first group.
"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.
We are easy to find — just go, where truth is.
The X-Files called and want their truth back.
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.)
...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'
I was replying to a general Libertarianist's statement that all "competition" is good competition.
But if you want to make a specific argument, say that Uber is competing on level grounds with cabs go ahead.
Just askin'.
We all know how that ended, right?
Could I possibly get the ability to block the app from reading my battery state (which I'm perfectly capable of monitoring and maintaining myself)? Obviously, Uber went through some trouble putting this in so waiting for them to remove it is problematic at best.
Indeed. Throw me into that briar patch farmer Brown!
Yes, Uber has been showing that all that regulation is rather useless compared to a free market solution that follows some reasonable rules/regulations.
I don't read AC A human 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.
No. It's really quite simple. In the first sentence I was simply stating he misunderstood what I was talking about. In the second sentence I was simply stating that if he wanted to try and argue something like "Bus, cab, and Lyft" all compete on a level playing then I was listening.
"The playing field is quite level and the competition certainly exists"
Quite level isn't good enough.
If one team has to wear lead shoes and the other one doesn't it isn't anywhere near a free market.
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?
We are easy to find — just go, where truth is.
The truth is that there has never been a "free market" and that there has never been a successful society based on libertarian principles. Go ahead, name one. I'll wait.
Libertarian are basically anarchists who want police protection from their slaves. It helps conservatives pass off a patently probusiness political agenda as a noble bid for human freedom.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
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.
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?
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.
Nothing is ever perfectly level — quite level is sufficient.
You now have to demonstrate, how Uber is so advantaged over competition, that your lead shoes metaphor applies.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
that's easy.
its a taxi company, that willfully ignores taxi regulations.
regulations that its competition, taxi companies who follow the rules, have to follow.
that is its business model and the source of its profitability, as the other stuff (phone app, etc) is incidental and even taxi co.'s are getting in on that.
even you know that...as even you have stated such before.
so you can drop this burden of proof fallacy that you insist on engaging in all the time.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
you misspelled delusion.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
# Nothing is ever perfectly level #
Of course
# quite level is sufficient. #
I need a more reliable definition of 'quite level' before I can say it is sufficient for fair competition, on the specific case of Uber I agree with dywolf
So does Lyft. Fail.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Dywolf is a Statist asshole, who stalks my postings with meaningless follow-ups. To paraphrase Mark Twain, when you find yourself on the side of Dywolf, it is time to reform.
Lyft is a direct and fierce competitor of Uber — both ignore taxi regulations and neither is obviously advantaged over the other.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
# Official taxis ... fight Uber and Lyft and others equally. #