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Comment by pbreit | Hacker News Reader

You're right, that's a downer and a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to get the public's attention. The best, most perfect app in the world would not stand a chance against Uber's very good app and brilliant marketing.

Every ride I've taken with Uber has been exactly the fee presented before getting in the vehicle and with no tip expected. I'm not sure how much more transparent that needs to be. If you are referring to people who unexpectedly paid more on NYE, I can only sympathize a little. It's NEW YEARS EVE!!

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Every ride I've taken with Uber has been exactly the fee presented before getting in the vehicle and with no tip expected.

Eh? At what point do you give it a destination so that it can present you with an estimated price?

The only time it displays an estimated price RANGE is during surge pricing.

Airport trips in Boston are flat-fee trips.

And in SF ($65 flat fee)

You're right, that's a downer and a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to get the public's attention.

I never claimed to be talking about what the public wanted- I was just stating my own opinion.

I just tried the Uber app again, in case I'd missed a development. Nope- I "Set pickup location", then only have the option to "Request pickup here". It doesn't ask me where I'm going, let alone tell me how much it'll cost.

I understand your complaint, but I don't really feel like it would be very feasible from a business perspective. Black cabs set their own prices. Uber trying to predict those prices is a lose-lose: anytime they underestimate the cost, users will be pissed they had to pay more than expected. Anytime they overestimate it, they risk the fact that some users who otherwise would have called a cab may decide to figure out another option due to high prices. Uber just isn't in the business of predicting cab prices, any more than a normal cab you hail on the street is.

Yes, in an ideal world, they would estimate the cab price. But in an ideal world, iPods would come preinstalled with music and plane tickets could be purchased 5 mins before the flight at the same price. But these things just don't make business sense. I have a strong hunch that the time and effort put in by Uber to predict prices would only marginally increase their revenue, and certainly wouldn't increase their profits.

Black cabs set their own prices.

I was under the impression that this was not the case with Uber- that they specifically reached out to black cab companies to partner with them and establish rates. I may be wrong, but it's a real shame if I am.

Ah interesting, looks like you're right, I wasn't aware of this (see pricing at https://www.uber.com/cities/san-francisco for example). However, all the fares are per-minute when travelling < 11mph and per-mile when travelling > 11mph. This means that a significant amount of prediction would still be necessary, with quite a bit of error on either side, so I think my points still mostly apply.

It does suck though, quite a few friends of mine were burned on new year's eve and are still a bit reluctant to do it again after that one expensive experience. One friend got hit with $200 for going half a mile... he cancelled the trip midway through when someone called him to cancel the cab, and got Uber to refund another $100 or so a few days later.

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