
Uber Surge Price? Research Says Walk a Few Blocks, Wait a Few Minutes - ckurose
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/10/29/452585089/uber-surge-price-research-says-walk-a-few-blocks-wait-a-few-minutes
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mw67
Or use this app:
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/surgeprotector/id925613132?m...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/surgeprotector/id925613132?mt=8)

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swypych
Cool concept, but it keeps crashing (iPhone 6, iOS8.4)

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turnip1979
Last time I encountered a 4x surge pricing, I downloaded Lyft ... the minute I
ordered it, surge pricing ended (really annoyed me and I went with Lyft
anyways). If it wasn't for surge pricing, I'd be cheerleading for Uber. Surge
pricing adds a level of uncertainty ... and 4x on a 50 dollar ride is insane
if it ends in a few minutes.

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viscanti
Isn't that the whole point of surge pricing? It's attempting to balance supply
and demand. On the supply side it's trying to get more drivers where there's
more demand. On the demand side, it's trying to see if you really need a ride,
or if you can walk a couple blocks or if you can wait a few minutes.

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toomuchtodo
If surge pricing is enabled in order to temper demand until supply can catch
up, it promotes supply from places Uber may not like (Lyft).

No app yet to query Lyft and Uber, see who is cheaper at the moment, and
launch the cheaper provider?

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jimkri
Here is a website that does the comparison between the 2, but you have to
manually enter the surge percentage,
[http://www.whatsthefare.com/](http://www.whatsthefare.com/)

I think someone mentioned it at least a year ago in a discussion about Uber
vs. Lyft.

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mml
In my experience, surge pricing on a nice day doesn't last long. When the
weather is nuts, you're gonna pay. Too bad I'm not a researcher.

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ryanx435
just like I refuse to pay covers at bars, I refuse to pay surge pricing. Uber
is my go to app, but if they are doing surge pricing than I switch to ihail
(an Uber clone run by a taxi company). if they ate busy, than I use lyft as a
last resort. I hate using lyft because they don't offer a fare estimate.

using this process I have saved myself 100s of dollars in ride fares.

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eastbayjake
> I hate using lyft because they don't offer a fare estimate.

Where are you using these apps? In the Bay Area, I like Lyft better than Uber
because Lyft gives you a specific fare but Uber gives you a range. (FWIW,
there are many other reasons I like Lyft better than Uber.)

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__Joker
How does customer need to counteract if he needs a time sensitive ride? Lets
say, I need to go to Airport at time x. Neither I can book earlier to
guarantee a ride nor can I wait out the surge.

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monort
Use a transfer service, which offers pre-orders. Uber is losing all my airport
rides because they don't have it.

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TeMPOraL
They probably don't want it anyway. It's more profitable for both Uber and the
drivers to not take such rides; in the time to and back from airport they
could take several within the city.

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monort
If it's profitable for a generic limousine transfer services, why it's not
profitable for Uber? Blacklane seems to be profitable too.

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skimpycompiler
Logistics of planning all those orders and rides is expensive.

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Retric
Sounds like a job for software.

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skimpycompiler
It'd be interesting to see how someone handles vehicle routing problem on a
large scale, quickly and optimally.

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TeMPOraL
Isn't that a solved problem since like the early 70s? Even computing power is
not a limiting factor now, only those pesky humans bickering about "central
planning" and "democratization".

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skimpycompiler
Haha, solved?

Put in the time windows, put the capacity limits, put the pickup and delivery
(this isn't same as just delivery).

It's far from solved, and far from efficient. Field isn't even mature as
theoretical computer science, not even rigorous enough :D

You have papers talking about their newest hybrid genetic memetic evolutionary
deep simulated annealing bullcrap algorithm getting hundreds of citations.

You have services like Routific, Routyn, Viamente, WorkWave, and others
struggling with it. No one in this world has the technology powerful enough to
optimize at scale. Example. WorkWave is talking about exploiting 45Billion
dollar market of optimizing thousands of technicians and their routes, but
they can't even scale that on a daily basis for large number of delivery
points, given how slow their optimization engine is. Same goes for every
service mentioned above. Oh yeah, WorkWave bought Viamente for $4M, that's how
much their tech was worth. Seems a little bit low for something that could
attack the 45Billion market.

I have not stumbled upon a single one in the last 10 years that has any
potential. All are leeching or would like to leech the big companies that can
afford a 1 day waiting time for optimization. UPS seems to be all happy about
its routing engine, but they too are being weird about it, if it's good then
show it.

Someone who solves this for Uber will definitely get its first billion.

This would be a huge engineering effort since the problem is NP-hard :D

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jdlyga
I always just try the request again a minute later and surge pricing is
usually gone.

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msde
Or use a new company like [https://fasten.com/](https://fasten.com/) who
doesnt do surge pricing.

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3princip
>No surge pricing ... however if you're late for work ... you can always Boost
your ride.

The website explains to boost ones ride is to apply a multiplier to the price.
One might call this a surge.

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msde
That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and
incentives far better than Uber does.

Uber is the classic case of aggressive government style intervention in a
market causing it to collapse - no riders or drivers in high demand areas
during surge pricing. This is a total failure of market policy because no
price discrimination is allowed.

Fasten is akin to setting minimum wage. They set a low base price but if you
want to get somewhere faster or get preference during a busy period then YOU
can raise your price by what it's worth to you.

This is a big stumbling block for Uber to which Fasten has a rather decent
solution.

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forgetsusername
> _That 's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and
> incentives far better than Uber does._

It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it
represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system,
which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand.

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dragonwriter
> It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it
> represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system,
> which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand.

Uber's system is a central planner trying to simulate the results of a two-
sided auction by centrally setting prices to try to achieve a desired result
given supply and demand signals.

Fasten's system strips out the simulation and just _is_ an auction, which
allows supply and demand to align without requiring central planning.

I think its pretty fair to describe the latter as evidencing a better
understanding of economics.

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toomuchtodo
Especially since its been proven that surge pricing doesn't incentivize more
supply.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/ho...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/how-
uber-surge-pricing-really-works/)

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mezeek
The simplest way is to move the pickup point ever so slightly until you reach
a spot without surge pricing, then simply walk there as it arrives.

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deathtrader666
Nope.

This doesn't work.

I've walked more than a couple of miles, and waited more than an hour.. the
surge stays between 4X to 5X.

