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Uber officially launches ‘Uber Express Pool’ in select cities
After being piloted in Boston and San Francisco, Uber is officially launching Express Pool in those two cities along with Los Angeles, DC, Miami, San Diego, Philadelphia and Denver. The ride-hailing company plans on launching the service in more cities soon.
Uber hopes to win back London with a 24/7 helpline
When Transport for London (TfL) refused to renew Uber's operating license last September, issues with safety were among the primary reasons for the regulator's decision. Specifically, TfL wasn't enamored with how Uber reported serious offenses and conducted driver backgrounds checks, showing a lack of corporate responsibility. Since then, Uber's been keen to win TfL over, recently imposing limits on how long drivers can work without taking a break -- forced downtime of a similar nature has just been implemented for US drivers, too. Today, Uber has announced another raft of changes intended to make its service safer and curry favor with London's transport regulator.
London may force Uber to introduce women-only UberPools
Out of the blue, Transport for London (TfL) has issued a "policy statement" on ride-sharing services in the capital. Most of it isn't new — the bulk of the six-page document recaps older policy announcements, such as the controversial English language test for Uber drivers — but there is one idea that hasn't been communicated before. "Operators should provide mechanisms to allow passengers to choose who they share vehicles with (e.g. women-only vehicles) and establishing how passengers might be able to decide on this before accepting a ride." That would affect UberPool and similar services that offer discounts if you share a ride with a stranger.
The cost of off-peak UberPool trips is going up in London
Uber is quietly increasing the prices of some journeys in and around the London area, the ride-hailing service revealed in an email to drivers. In an attempt to pad the wallets of drivers during slow hours, UberPool ride-shares will be a bit more expensive for passengers. Typically, an UberPool trip is 25 percent cheaper than an UberX journey. Between the hours of 4AM and 8PM on weekdays, however, that discount will be reduced to 15 percent. UberPool is also being disabled at Heathrow Airport, meaning you can no longer get a cheap lift home by sharing with randoms that've also just touched down.
Uber's carpool service sacrifices convenience for efficiency in NYC (updated)
In the wake of its terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2017 (yup, and it's only just May), Uber has been doing a lot of work to improve its service. As an extension of the "smart pickup points" trial from London and other cities last year, the ride-hailing company is augmenting the Uber Pool service in Manhattan, enhancing the option's awareness of more direct routes and bus lanes. "After realizing that a short walk could save people both time and money, we knew we were onto something," the outfit writes in a blog post. "Our data was starting to show that we could pick more people up and get riders to their destinations faster."
Uber's drop-off feature saves you time, money when carpooling
Uber has been tweaking its carpooling feature for a while now, with features that improve your experience when riding with strangers. The company will give you $2 off your next uberPOOL ride if you don't make it to your location on time, and added real-time ride notifications to its carpool service this past December. Today, the company has announced it will pilot suggested drop-off points to make sure you get to your destination as soon as possible, even if you have to walk a ways to get there. The new feature will roll out in San Francisco and Los Angeles today.
Uber tweaks its app to make UberPool rides more convenient
UberPool is one of the cheaper ride-hailing options, grouping nearby passengers who are headed in the same direction. The problem is that all of those pickups and drop-offs can be time consuming. To help, Uber has announced a raft of new features for its mobile apps, including status notifications for riders. Once you've confirmed a booking, that means you'll receive "real-time instructions" and updates such as "leaving shortly" and "be ready outside." Drivers, meanwhile, will find a timer in the app specifying how long to wait at the pick-up point. If the passenger doesn't appear, they're free to move on and claim a no-show fee from Uber.
UberPool coverage area doubles in London
Previously only available in more central parts of London, Uber's ridesharing option has been expanded to cover the entirety of zone 3 today. The catchment area for UberPool, which was first offered in London a year ago almost to the day, has effectively doubled as a result of the expansion. With UberPool, passengers can save 25 percent on the cost of an UberX ride, with the catch being they might have to share their trip with a stranger.
'Upfront' Uber pricing replaces estimates with guarantees
Soon, when you open up Uber and request a ride you'll see the pricing in a different way. Instead of its current method of displaying the rate (and multiplier, if surge pricing is in effect), with a fare estimate in a second screen, it will just display a guaranteed price to take you to your destination. Of course, that doesn't mean surge pricing is going away, just that it will already be figured in to the price you're quoted (with a "Fares are higher due to increased demand" note.)
ICYMI: Cellphone motor as mic and fuel from sunlight
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers created a hack that lets a smartphone's vibration motor act as a microphone, picking up conversations unbeknownst to the user. Harvard University folk created fuel using artificial photosynthesis that is triple as effective as previous systems, making gas out of sunlight, CO2 and water. And finally, YouTube user BOOM LLC Robotater has a pretty entertaining potato video on the site; if you're looking for the case that lets you switch an iPhone to Android, that's here. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
UberPOOL will give you $2 if it makes you late
Uber has an interesting offer for its carpool customers. It has launched a new feature called "Arrive By," which tells you the absolute latest time UberPOOL can take you to your destination. If you get there beyond the time it promised, you'll get $2 off your next UberPOOL trip, assuming you don't arrive so late you decide to swear off the service. You'll have to update your Uber app, select UberPOOL and type in your pick-up and drop-off locations to start seeing the estimates. The feature is only available in LA at the moment, but the company says it could be rolled out in additional markets.
UberPool now covers most of central London
Uber's ride-sharing service, UberPool, is now available in a larger patch of London. Whereas before it was limited to a small part of the capital, it now spans all of zone one and zone two, as well as Heathrow Airport. All told, the reach of UberPool has more than doubled across the city.
UK watchdog singlehandedly dismantles TfL's Uber sanctions
Uber's impact on the London taxi trade has been huge. The exponential growth of the ride-hailing service has caused anger and criticism among more traditional operators, particularly black cabbies, who argue lax regulations have allowed Uber to flourish unchecked. After a long-fought legal challenge, London's High Court recently ruled that the way Uber calculates fares is legal, and is not equivalent to taximeters reserved for black cabs exclusively. No sooner had that bullet been dodged than Transport for London (TfL) let another fly in the form of proposals to significantly overhaul private hire regulations, under the guise of improving passenger safety.
Londoners will soon be able to share an Uber with strangers
If you're willing to share an Uber with a stranger, travelling across London could soon be a little bit cheaper. The company is launching UberPool this Friday (December 4th) at 4pm, starting with a small patch in the centre of the city -- it stretches between Highbury in the North, Wapping in the East, Brixton in the South and Shepherd's Bush in the West. Sharing a ride will, the company claims, make your fare 25 percent cheaper than if you had travelled with UberX, the company's next best option. You simply open the app, choose the UberPool icon and your destination; it'll then ask how many seats you need (for now, two is the limit) and give a final fare. If you're the driver's second stop, Uber will tell you the name of your fellow traveller immediately, otherwise you'll get a notification mid-journey.
Uber tests picking up passengers along specific routes
Uber has a new feature that could save customers some precious, precious dollars. TechCrunch has discovered that the company is testing out what it calls "Smart Routes" for UberPool, wherein cars pick up passengers along a specific corridor instead of going to their homes. If you look at the map below the fold, you'll see a green line going through a road -- a customer who chooses the option will have to hoof it from their homes to a pick-up point along that route. Think of those points as bus stops of sorts. In exchange, Uber will give them a discount worth at least a dollar. The company's been testing a similar feature called "Suggested Pickup Points" for a while now, but that one still has cars meet customers close to their homes.
Lyft snaps up company that makes carpooling with strangers more efficient
Lyft, it seems, is going to be getting a bit bigger and, perhaps, a touch better. The not-a-cab outfit has recently acquired a stranger-based carpooling company by the name of Hitch. The service itself will shut down, but TechCrunch says that the startup's founders will be putting "some of what" they had built for their own company into Lyft Line's brand of ride-sharing. So long as the tech (a proprietary rider-matching engine, from the sounds of it) means that Line can be a viable alternative to Uber's surge pricing, it should work out pretty well for everyone involved. Just remember: the Golden Rule applies to strangers regardless of venue -- no matter how, ahem, unique they might be. [Image credit: Getty Images]
Uber's latest service has you splitting your ride fare with strangers
Uber likes to undercut conventional taxi pricing, but it can get expensive if you're by your lonesome -- just ask anyone who has had to pay surge pricing to get to the airport. You may not have to cough up the full amount the next time you're going solo, though. The company has just launched the beta for UberPool, a service that has you sharing a car with strangers. If you're a tester, Uber will try to match you up with another person who's taking a similar route; whether or not there's another rider, your fare gets cut in half. The mobile app will also tell you who's being picked up first and the name of your buddy, so you'll have a decent excuse to start a conversation.
