
Designing the Uber Cash Experience - mtmoore55
https://medium.com/@matthewcmoore/designing-the-uber-cash-experience-649a2749b324
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resu_nimda
This, like most of Uber's posts I've seen, feels like hollow
marketing/recruiting. A design post without a discernable screenshot, diagram,
or mock - or diagram just a bunch of pictures of the team having a great time?
How many times did we hear how data-driven and great Uber is; were "magical
experiences" and "paradigm-shifting" really necessary?

Maybe I'm just being a grumpus, and I do know that many company blogs and such
are thinly veiled marketing, but I always find myself hoping to see something
genuine and down-to-earth from Uber...

~~~
pbreit
Not a great recruiting tool. Why do people in SF think they know better than
those in India? And the broader story is that this Uber blind spot possibly
caused its inability to compete effectively in India.

~~~
oh_sigh
Wasn't the entire point of the story that they went to India multiple times to
figure out how to do it right?

~~~
pbreit
Yes, but first, they apparently did not do that. And second, they didn't
appear to rely much on their in-country team.

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not_that_noob
This is thinly disguised marketing, spinning a huge negative for Uber in India
into a positive.

The situation in India is that Ola (Indian Uber clone) is by far and away the
leader. The cool thing about Ola is that you can pay by cash. Indians prefer
cash and dislike credit cards, and so Ola rode that desire to huge success
([http://fortune.com/2015/09/16/india-ola-unicorn-
funding/](http://fortune.com/2015/09/16/india-ola-unicorn-funding/)), while
Uber held tight to their cashless utopia, receding away in Ola's rear view
mirror.

This then is nothing more than Uber finally admitting that their pristine
model was wrong for India. So instead of a mea culpa, they turn it into a
fantasy design trip and journey.

I do admire the chutzpah though. Hustle hustle hustle.

~~~
denzil_correa
> The situation in India is that Ola (Indian Uber clone) is by far and away
> the leader.

Do you have any source for this?

Personally, I have stopped using Ola due to its shoddy app and "service". I
find UberGo more reliable and cheaper. Uber hit a bump last November where
Reserve Bank of India mandated 2FA for credit card transactions. However, Uber
has come up with a nice hack to get around this - direct to credit card
payment gateway after the ride. That has enabled them to use debit cards
(which is common in India) for payments as well. They already had tie ups with
virtual wallet services like PayTM after the credit card directive.

~~~
not_that_noob
[https://www.techinasia.com/india-uber-vs-ola-
infographic/](https://www.techinasia.com/india-uber-vs-ola-infographic/)

750k rides/day for Ola 200k riders/day for Uber

Uber is in more cities, and in more modes of transport.

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ignoramous
The blog post doesn't even acknowledge that a local competitor, Ola, has had
cash payments since its inception. Uber also complains about the 'regulations'
Well, Uber, ask your engineers and they would tell you those 'regulations' are
in place to prevent credit-card fraud.

The design process they spoke about... They just ended up postponing their
launch. Ola might have an inferior experience compared to the classy uber but
it just works. It's like hackernews... It isn't mobile friendly, nor is it
real-time or shiny, but ever so popular because its a fantastic product.

Like someone else mentioned, this looks like PR. Uber isn't even ack that they
were considerably late to market with cash payments in India. They don't
mention their competition (which they could have, since it has an inferior UX,
and the blog post supposedly talks about 'design').

They were on their high horses when they entered India, thinking people would
choose Uber because of superior payments experience (credit card), and a very
well polished UX... They were wrong. Here's a series of things which I think
they ripped from their competition here in India:

1\. Cash payments

2\. Switching to generic Android phones from iPhones

3\. Electronic cash wallets

4\. SOS feature

There are other features that Uber still lacks, like:

1\. Free calls between driver and customer

2\. SMS notifications

3\. Guaranteed cab allotment

4\. Short distance but cheaper cabs

5\. Tuk-tuks for hire (Auto Rickshaws)

6\. Call centre customer service

7\. Call-based booking

8\. Advance booking (cab after 2hrs and so on...)

Watch them write blog posts like they invented these other features too
because they flew in with smart people and connected with the locals and
gathered data to prove their intuitions when in reality they just imitated a
local competition.

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femto113
I'm less curios about the rider->driver transaction, and more curious about
the driver<->Uber transaction. It seems this creates a liability where drivers
now owe Uber for their part of cash fares. Are they expected to mail a stack
of paper rupees to Uber each week?

~~~
xxbondsxx
Yeah this is the burning question thats completely unanswered by the article
:-/

~~~
mizzao
It seems like if 95% of rides are cash, then there may not be enough to
deduct...

~~~
femto113
Anything over 50% of rides being cash causes this to become an issue. Assuming
everyone who can use credit always does, since there's about 20 cash users for
every one of them the uptake of Uber among cash users only has to be 1/20th of
the uptake among credit users to get to 50% cash rides. If anyone who could
use credit chooses to use cash instead this number could be much lower.

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mjs
Wait, so how does the driver pay Uber their cut? They have to deliver the cash
to the Uber depot? And what happens if they get robbed on the way? (Or say
they did?)

~~~
benatkin
My guess is that Uber subtracts it from the amount that Uber would pay the
drivers for the credit card transactions. They still support and encourage use
of credit cards.

If a driver didn't deliver cash to Uber they would probably be deactivated. If
they had an excuse for it they could try customer service.

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stormbrew
I was worried this was about them rolling this out in North America, which
would be absolutely terrible. Part of the safety tradeoff of Uber is that it's
considerably more safe to be an uber driver than a cabbie because you don't
have to carry large quantities of cash. I'd really rather not see that change.

~~~
mizzao
Clearly India is a culture where it's acceptable and not awkward to pay in
cash. In North America people don't like handling cash, so it will probably
stay the way it is.

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honoredb
_...the new learnings_

Picked up a little Indian English along the way, I see. :)

I liked the attention to UX. Deliberately breaking the user's normal workflow
in order to emphasize that something vital is different is a pattern I'll need
to remember.

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amelius
So how much cash do Uber drivers actually make? I can't believe they don't
disclose this data openly. And until they do, they don't have my sympathy. The
same holds for the App/Play stores, by the way. People have the right to know
what they sign up for, especially if they are putting lots of upfront effort
into it.

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iamleppert
Umm....regular cab drivers have been taking cash for years. Why is it so
amazing when a product team goes and does the obvious?

What would be more interesting is understanding how this has impacted Uber's
business model.

The article was very light on details and high on itself. Blah.

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brianbreslin
Can anyone in India take a screenshot and show us how this transaction looks?
taking pictures of drivers, but not showing how the interface looks is not
super useful.

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smileysteve
Bitcoin question; if cash and digital don't exist in India, does this make for
a better bit coin atm scenario?

Then you could link your uber account with your btc wallet.

~~~
Pharaoh2
Both cash and digital exists in india. Bitcoin will find it even harder to
grow in india than in first world countries because a large part of the
population are not comfortable with using technology.

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eiopa
They sure like saying "driver-partner" a lot

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smileysteve
I find it amazing that India doesn't have a more digitized form of payment
available. I wonder when they will be able to have mobile pay available on
their phones.

~~~
Pharaoh2
India already does. For that fact mobile and card payment is a lot better
executed than in USA. The difference is that it's a more recent happening and
that is why they could learn from the mistakes of others and improve things.
The problem is that a large part of the population grew up using cash and are
more comfortable with it than with any form of mobile/card payment. The
younger generation will prefer cashless transactions but being cashless only
will leave a large part of the market alienated.

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picardo
There are a lot of Uber-skeptics here. Say what you want, but for a company
that's thrived on mobile payments to redesign their product experience to
accept cash payments is a huge deal. It speaks to the company's (and the
design team's) ability to question fundamental assumptions about their product
as they enter new markets. Many a large tech company has failed when it has
tried to enter a new market coasting on its successes in other markets. Uber
succeeds because it doesn't fall into the tarpit of technology-driven
innovation.

Way to go Matt! Awesome post!

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aianus
What a step backwards... but money trumps idealism every day.

