Uber Tests Cheaper Fares For Riders Who Are Willing To Wait Longer (qz.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: The ride-hailing company has started testing a feature that gives riders the option to trade a shorter wait for a cheaper fare. "Prices are lower at 17:00," Uber recently advised an Uber employee who requested a ride in Berkeley, California, and tweeted a screenshot of the feature. The image showed the Uber employee that he could request a ride "now" (4:56pm local time) for $10.18, or wait until 5pm and pay $8.15, about 25% less. "If you're OK leaving later, we'll request your ride at 17:00 for a lower price," Uber's app stated.

The option to wait longer in exchange for a cheaper ride is being tested among all Uber employees in San Francisco and Los Angeles, a company spokeswoman told Quartz in an email. "Affordability is a top reason riders choose shared rides, and we're internally experimenting with a way to save money in exchange for a later pickup," she said.

Comments

Good AI

[110010001000]

This is a good application of Deep Learning Neural Networks AI. Very clever.

Re:"taxi"

[KiloByte]

The word you are looking for is "taxi", as in "Uber is a taxi company"

No -- a taxi is guaranteed to charge more than promised, start the counter at more than 0, take you a scenic route, shortchange you or claim to have no change even though you see it in the driver's wallet. You always get at least one from the above list, if you're going from the airport while looking obviously foreign you're likely to get every single item.

Uber would have to introduce weekly orphanage shootings using bullets made from charred kitten bones if they'd want to be anywhere near a typical taxi company.