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Announcing UberPool

blog.uber.com

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Re: Announcing UberPool

#111

Post by waitwhatwhoa »

rottyguy wrote: post #108

Along the lines of reducing fossil fuel consumption and having just returned from a trip to Copenhagen and Amsterdam, I really wish the bicycling culture was better embraced in the States in the bigger cities. NYC has Citibike which I find fantastic! But DC doesn't have the density of bike stations to make it convenient. How are the other cities? Miami, Chicago, San Fran, etc?

Chicago's bike share is very well built out (IMO) and if you're in a neighborhood serviced by it (many low income neighborhoods just aren't deployed at all) you should be no more than two blocks from a station: http://www.divvybikes.com/stations

Re: Announcing UberPool

#112

Post by wakeless »

minimaxir wrote: post #2

I'm a little surprised at the choice of "Pool" instead of more conventional terms in the sharing economy such as "UberShare" or "UberContribute." I was very disappointed that UberPool isn't a swimming-pool-as-a-service.

Here in Queenstown, NZ there's spa (jacuzzi) as a service.

Re: Announcing UberPool

#113

Post by acabrahams »

I've been waiting for something like this to arrive for a while. In Israel and the West Bank, services called sheiruts act as mini-buses; they're taxis that pick up multiple passengers going in the same direction, usually for the same price as a public bus ticket. When buses are scarce, they are a really useful service. Could UberPool be like this?

Re: Announcing UberPool

#114

Post by eli »

mdorazio wrote: post #59
joelgrus wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am starting a new job soon about 3 miles from my apartment, which is a little too far to walk. (I can walk that far, but I don't really want an hour-each-way commute.) One thing I've been considering is using Uber / Lyft, but it's a lot of money over the course of a year. At 40% cheaper it looks a lot more attractive, though. And sharing a car with another rider isn't any worse than sharing it with the driver! :)

Is there a reason you don't want to just bike? Seems like the perfect distance for it, and it's free after the initial investment of a couple hundred dollars.

simply not a practical option for everyone. I only do it because I can bikeshare one way home. After biking a few miles in DC in the summer I need a shower and complete change of clothes.

Also, before they put the bike lanes in biking during rush hour felt stressful and dangerous.

Re: Announcing UberPool

#115

Post by Vik1ng »

aluhut wrote: post #95

I wonder how this will influence the legal problems Uber has here in Germany.

Germany already has such similar services. http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/ etc. Uber is still not legal, because it's commercial. And those services kick out people if they just do it for the money.

Re: Announcing UberPool

#116

Post by michaelt »

ZoF wrote: post #42
RandallBrown wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Seattle, a car2go trip that costs $15 would be 36 minutes long. Car2Go has no mileage fee for trips under 150 miles. The same UberX trip would be $13 before taking mileage into account. If it took you 36 minutes, I assume you went at least 3 miles. So that makes the trip cost at least 17 bucks. I've found that Car2Go is quite a bit cheaper than using either Lyft or UberX. I usually use them together though. I'll t…

Doesn't Car2Go require you to bring the car back to it's starting point? Are there multiple locations you can drop the car at, and if not, how do you handle that when taking it to the bar?

I gather from their website the car may be returned to "any non-restricted curb side parking throughout the car2go Home Area"

How extensive the home area is depends heavily on the city. In Los Angeles, it looks like a tiny sliver of the city [1] whereas in Berlin the coverage looks a lot better [2] (although it's possible I'm being confused by different map zoom levels)

[1] https://www.car2go.com/en/losangeles/ [2] https://www.car2go.com/en/berlin/

Re: Announcing UberPool

#117

Post by Vik1ng »

AVTizzle wrote: post #76

>>Even if we don’t find an UberPool match for you, we’ll give you a discount on your ride. That's huge. A huge problem Hitch faces is having enough demand-side riders on the market to make the marketplace viable [1] Uber is going to be subsidizing the demand-side of the marketplace until the marketplace matures and demand fills in. [1] http://www.crewlab.net/uberpool

On the other hand it means Uber has to make that money somewhere, probably the other Uber services which mean they rely on taking a big cut out of the fees making them less competitive.

Re: Announcing UberPool

#118

Post by Grue3 »

For a service that entirely depends on network effect, they surely aren't making adoption easy. It's the same mistake Google made with Google+.

Re: Announcing UberPool

#119

Post by mrcwinn »

dk8996 wrote: post #55

Where can I bet that Google will buy Uber and make self-driving Uber cars? (I am not joking, do people know where I can place a bet on this?)

Oh, there's not a chance. Google's already invested quite a bit in Uber. Their exit is an IPO, not another investment. Private investment for startups is like a game of hot potato. Investors want to toss the potato to whomever will pay more. The public market is the last person to throw it to, and the valuation of Uber necessitates it.

Re: Announcing UberPool

#120

Post by jfoster »

acabrahams wrote: post #113

I've been waiting for something like this to arrive for a while. In Israel and the West Bank, services called sheiruts act as mini-buses; they're taxis that pick up multiple passengers going in the same direction, usually for the same price as a public bus ticket. When buses are scarce, they are a really useful service. Could UberPool be like this?

Sounds similar to songthaews in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Aside from bikes, they seem to be the primary way of getting around and you just hail them like a taxi, talk to the driver to confirm that they're headed in somewhat the right direction, and it all works a bit like a dynamically selected bus route.
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