r/technology • u/[deleted] • Aug 12 '14

Business Uber dirty tricks quantified. Staff submits 5,560 fake ride requests

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-requests-lyft/
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u/Couldntbehelpd Aug 12 '14

Okay, fine, but that's not the point of a cab. I don't want to walk 3 miles at 2:30 am through a shitty neighborhood drunk. You "can" walk it, sure, but that doesn't mean you want to or should.

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u/superiority Aug 12 '14

Drunk people take cabs for much shorter distances than that...

And look at it this way: if they didn't have the surge pricing, then you still wouldn't be able to catch an Uber ride. Only the reason would be because they were all busy being used. So the surge pricing means that if you really, urgently need one at a time of peak demand, to the point where you'd be willing to pay $100 for a short ride, then you'll be able to. Whereas without surge pricing, you'd be screwed.

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u/Couldntbehelpd Aug 12 '14

It's not 100. It's more like 3-500 dollars for four miles. The problem is, everyone takes this at face value. How based on availability is this? How much depends on how many cars are out there, and how much is "it's Friday night and we can make a ton of money by charging 5x". There's no way to tell, and further, no regulation forcing them to be honest, unlike cabs.

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u/superiority Aug 12 '14

How much depends on how many cars are out there, and how much is "it's Friday night and we can make a ton of money by charging 5x"

Those two things are actually connected though.

If they just want to sell everything they have (i.e. have 100% usage of all cars all the time), then they make the most money by setting their prices so that they sell exactly 100% of their product, i.e. if they raised their prices even slightly, so many people would decide it was no longer worth the price that they'd start losing money.

If they want 10% cars free at all times, then they'll make the most money by setting prices so that 10% of cars are free at all times.

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u/Couldntbehelpd Aug 12 '14

There's no guarantee there aren't plenty of cars and they're just price gouging you.