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SurgeProtector — Call an Uber to the nearest location without surge pricing
SurgeProtector finds locations close to you with lower surge pricing and helps call an Uber to those spots.
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@sammybauch Exactly. Put more simply, Is surge pricing localized enough that you can walk out of it?
@daveying99 yeah. thats what I was trying to say. thanks!
if I have to take a subway to get to "non surge" I'm just going to take the subway wherever I'm trying to go.
@daveying99 @sammybauch Surprisingly, yes. It depends on the population density of the area, but in SF, it's often very easy to walk 2-3 blocks and be out of surge pricing. In more suburban areas, the areas are usually larger and there's less granularity.
Reminds me of a recent Tech Crunch article by @jordanrcrook, Be Smarter Than That, Uber Users.
can someone who has actually used this service attest to it's success? im curious to hear of others' experiences.
@benhoffman_ used this last night. So awesome. Walked literally one block to zero surge. One click throws you back into Uber app prepped to hail from the zero surge spot. Taught me about the edges of the zone around my apartment, too, so I know for the future.
Nice idea. However the first review you have in the app store for a one day old app says:
"Has saved me from surge pricing countless times. Thanks surgeprotector!"
That may raise a flag in Apple review that the review isn't a valid review, or came from the developer. You don't want Apple suspending you for fake reviews.
Hey! I made this more-or-less over a weekend with my roommate @qnikhil. Uber's been super cool with supporting our API requests. Ask away!
@iambarronroth definitely something we want to do, but probably focusing just on iOS for next 2-3 weeks.
@tomhschmidt: Sounds good! I hear @therealjfrantz has some jaw-dropping Androiddev skills! Ask him about his Google project ;)
Really interesting that surge pricing is so variable within a few blocks. If surge pricing is truly driven by a supply & demand imbalance with such specificity around the origin, it seems like surge pricing should be an absolute dollar amount and not a multiple of the total ride cost. After all, a $10 base fare and a $50 base fare both remove 1 unit of supply from the origin location. At 2x surge pricing, why should the former pay a $10 surge premium and the latter pay a $50 surge premium? That said, I imagine the higher your base fare the less price sensitive you are to surge pricing in absolute terms, rational or not, which would justify surge pricing as a multiple of base fare.
It would be cool to see a more optimized origin + destination based surge
(and whatever you might call the opposite of surge) pricing, which could also help relocate drivers to the geographic areas that have the greatest supply & demand imbalance.
This looks awesome. Would be interesting to see if it could estimate when surge pricing would end in your area based on nearby prices too.
Love it. Nice use of the API. Guessing you're just hitting these endpoints? https://developer.uber.com/v1/en...
Woah. Will be using this for sure. I'd also love to see some more experiences people have had with it.
Just last week I noticed when trying to get an uber and receiving a 2.75x surge, that moving the pin by just a block and a half reduced the surge to just 1.25x.
Also fascinating that this is all done with supported uber APIs (and apparently condoned). Recently with an uber driver I learned that they sometimes "trick" the system into surging by accepting then immediately denying a ride several times in a row. Looks like now we have a trick of our own to combat this.
It certainly still is the Wild West when it comes to ride sharing.
@tomhschmidt - would be awesome if it all showed areas where surge was lower. I'd rather walk a block for 1.3x vs. 1.6x than 15 minutes for no surge.
Well, that's pretty convenient. I am very curious about the business model (and potential fundability) of an app like this since it's basically a hack for a very specific subset of a very specific type of person.
A much needed hack (and I mean that in the good way). I immediately wonder about the economics of the situation. Obviously it will have immediate benefit to the user, though I can imagine a scenario that would this would just negative consequences for the drivers who rely on surge pricing for extra cash. Also, using this in high density areas like concerts and sporting events, you might just make what was a localized surge spread to the surrounding areas, though I imagine it would dissipate the peak surge. Apologies for the ramblings, still really cool!
Doesn't work in Sweden, unfortunately. #sadface
http://cl.ly/image/0S1r102U0v3I
@sempler hey Jacob! That actually means that we couldn't find any areas with no surge pricing within 1 km of you. We're still working on UI / messaging :)
@sempler We just pushed 1.01 which both improves the error messaging and will find any location with lower surge, not just non-surging areas. Try it out!
x-hed