

Dear Uber: you’re great but please add this feature - Max_Horstmann
http://maxhorstmann.net/blog/2014/04/13/dear-uber-youre-great-but-please-add-this-feature/

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tptacek
This is probably a bad idea; Uber drivers will primarily use this to screen
which calls they pick up. Even if they only revealed the destination after the
driver accepted, if the fare was unfavorable enough, the driver might still
accept the ding for canceling.

There may also be liability reasons for not directly handling nav in the
driver app, even if that just meant delegating to some iOS framework:

* It would give customers a toehold to litigate the routes Uber selected, rather than leaving them out of that process entirely

* It would require drivers to interact with iPhones while driving in order to handle the routing, which might be considered less safe than dash-mounted nav devices.

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whatshisface
I don't see what is inherently bad about that. If there is a route drivers
don't want to take, shouldn't the free market push the price higher until they
see it as worth it? (While per-route pricing differences might add complexity,
that's exactly the sort of complexity a software company should be able to
handle.)

~~~
tptacek
If Uber's goal is to get regulated out of existence as fast as they possibly
can, a great first step would be to allow drivers to screen fares by
destination.

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apaprocki
Of course, the negative effect is that if a driver sees the destination
address before picking you up, they'll avoid taking the call if it is to a
location they'd rather not go. (e.g., city -> airport, forced to use heavily
congested roads, etc.)

That is one of the reasons taxis in NYC are not allowed to ask where you are
going prior to letting you in the car. They can be fined a few hundred for
that and a few violations will get their license revoked.

Also, what if there is more than one destination?

One way to avoid this -- perhaps the Uber app could let you push a contact's
address to the Uber driver's phone/GPS nav after you are in the car as the
"next immediate destination" to avoid having to say the address and have the
driver key it in.

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graupel
My guess is that giving drivers the destination info before you are actually
in the car would increase drivers canceling pickups when they see the
destination is somewhere they don't want to go, or not taking a pickup if they
didn't want to haul all the way out to an airport, etc.

~~~
tptacek
As I understand it, they generally like airport pickups. What they don't like
are (a) "haul you out into the middle of nowhere near any other fares", and
(b) "pick you up from the middle of nowhere and drive you for less than 10
minutes".

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jaredsohn
On a recent Uber ride, I had hoped that this would work since the rider app
looks like it supports it. (If you click the '+' sign after choosing a pickup
location, it lets you choose the dropoff location.) However, I was
disappointed in that the driver still asked where I was going. He recommended
to me that I try out Sidecar instead, which asks you where you are going as
its first question when you schedule a ride.

The second suggestion in the post was about indicating what kind of car to
expect. Lyft does a good job with this in the texts they send (it says your
driver name and the color/make of the car.)

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gkoberger
In contrast to other comments here, there's a lot they could do to mitigate
concerns -- such as simply not showing it until the person was in the car.

Of course, it's condescending to think Max Horstmann has though more about
this than Uber has.

That being said, it will show the driver the destination address if you use
the Fare Calculator before requesting the ride. I'm not 100% sure on the
details, though.

~~~
Max_Horstmann
My blog post was meant as a feature suggestion by a happy Uber customer, not
in a condescending way at all. By no means I meant to imply that I have
"thought more about this than Uber has".

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viralbajaria
Lyft has this feature (not sure if they added it in the latest update) but the
last time I rode the driver was unfamiliar with this feature and asked me
"where to", to which I said I added the destination and as soon as the driver
marked the ride as "picked up", the destination popped up in the maps. The
driver was surprised and didn't know this feature existed.

Out of curiosity, does the Lyft driver app have maps/nav in-built while Uber
does not ?

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dsl
FYI: If you request a fare quote before your request, the driver will see your
destination once they have accepted the fare (otherwise it says "Drop off as
directed").

~~~
Max_Horstmann
Interesting! So basically they already have that feature (except for the gps
integration), you just have to know about it.

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chrisntr
There's a cache here:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:w1Aic--...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:w1Aic
--UF6sJ:maxhorstmann.net/blog/2014/04/13/dear-uber-youre-great-but-please-add-
this-feature/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

I would much rather be able to know what colour the car is that's turning up
with UberX, makes it easier to spot the car as it arrives.

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kevinwuhoo
Google Cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:w1Aic--...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:w1Aic
--UF6sJ:maxhorstmann.net/blog/2014/04/13/dear-uber-youre-great-but-please-add-
this-feature/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

TL;DR: "When ordering an Uber ride, I (obviously) have to enter my pickup
location. Can I please also enter the intended dropoff location?"

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atupem
You can already enter a drop-off location. It might be that Uber needs to make
this feature more pronounced in the UI.

On the confirmation screen, you can tap a little plus button next to the
pickup address to enter your drop-off location. It's come in handy for me a
few times.

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saiko-chriskun
You can already do this. If you use the estimate fare functionality, I've had
drivers already know where I'm going. It doesn't seem like everyone is
accustomed to this, though, since I've mentioned it and some drivers have no
idea what I'm talking about.

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shalmanese
Lyft just added this to their latest public build but they've been beta
testing this for a year. It doesn't do the navigation in app, it shunts it off
to your preferred navigation provider.

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Max_Horstmann
Huh? Looks like HN front-page traffic killed my server. Rebooting...

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danvayn
500 error

~~~
Max_Horstmann
try again?

