
Announcing UberPool - jefftchan
http://blog.uber.com/uberpool
======
minimaxir
I'm a little surprised at the choice of "Pool" instead of more conventional
terms in the sharing economy such as "UberShare" or "UberContribute." I was
very disappointed that UberPool isn't a swimming-pool-as-a-service.

~~~
wise_young_man
It's a play on the word Carpool and seems apt to me. The Uber brand name is
already synonymous with sharing as you share the car with the driver and
whoever is with you and they need to distinguish this separately. I also
thought it was something to do with bringing you to a swimming pool like
UberCats.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpool](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpool)

~~~
gorkemyurt
he was joking

~~~
balls187
I was actually hoping it was a summer promotion for Uber, mobile-pool-as-a-
service.

[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111219033328/simpsons/i...](http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111219033328/simpsons/images/5/53/Pool_Mobile.png)

------
necubi
Sounds very similar to Hitch[0] which launched a couple of months ago in SF.
It sounds very useful for long, expensive trips (e.g., cross bay, down to
south bay) where the fixed cost of picking up or dropping off another
passenger is a smaller factor.

On an unrelated note, how is the form at the bottom supposed to update you
when UberPool is in your area? Area codes are going to be inaccurate for
anybody who's moved since they got their cell phone number.

[0] [http://www.takehitch.com/](http://www.takehitch.com/)

~~~
netcan
This is one of those examples where the raw idea is not the main part.

Uber have a lot of advantages. They have a userbase of passengers and drivers
that can be brought over to new services. They have the media's attention,
including mainstream media. They have the cash to run at a loss while building
up. They have presence in a lot of cities. They also have the competence to do
this well.

Imagine that you build a "person search." You enter a name. It brings up a
page with pictures, facts and other information collected around the web. It's
nifty. That's interesting. But, if Google put a little "people" link between
images and news in their search page and person search will have hundreds of
thousands of users this week.

The news here is "uber launch carpooling service," not "carpooling service now
exists." Rightly so, IMO. If this works well, there could be tens of thousands
of user in a couple of months.

~~~
bduerst
I agree - I could help but think while reading this that I've seen a couple
services like this already.

But you're right, the key to this is the implementation of the idea over the
idea itself. Uber (probably) will generate a larger network of car poolers,
which is necessary for this type of service to work.

------
andrewmunsell
I'm a periodic Uber user and tend to use it later when public transit isn't
running. This would be interesting, and if cheap enough, could be more
convenient than waiting for a bus if you're in an area where they don't run
frequently and it's storming, extremely hot, you don't want to wait around.

I also just tried out Car2Go which costed me ~$15. The same trip from Uber,
albiet at a different time of day, costs $9-12, and I get a driver. If Uber's
pricing is even lower due to car sharing, then services like ZipCar and Car2Go
may be in a little trouble.

 _Of course, I realize if you 're going to pick something up from a hardware
store or whatever you may not want to use Uber, but for many types of trips
using a service like Uber or Lyft is better and more convenient than driving
yourself_

~~~
downandout
Are Uber users this price conscious though? I think their core user base skews
to a higher net worth, and aren't going to be the kinds of people that want to
share a car with another person. The only thing they'll know about the person
they are sharing with going in is that they are too cheap to take their own
Uber ride.

This just doesn't sound like it will work with their core user base. Maybe
they are trying to expand their user base to the public transportation crowd,
but that may devalue the brand.

~~~
joelgrus
I am starting a new job soon about 3 miles from my apartment, which is a
little too far to walk. (I _can_ walk that far, but I don't really want an
hour-each-way commute.)

One thing I've been considering is using Uber / Lyft, but it's a lot of money
over the course of a year. At 40% cheaper it looks a lot more attractive,
though. And sharing a car with another rider isn't any worse than sharing it
with the driver! :)

~~~
mdorazio
Is there a reason you don't want to just bike? Seems like the perfect distance
for it, and it's free after the initial investment of a couple hundred
dollars.

~~~
eli
simply not a practical option for everyone. I only do it because I can
bikeshare one way home. After biking a few miles in DC in the summer I need a
shower and complete change of clothes.

Also, before they put the bike lanes in biking during rush hour felt stressful
and dangerous.

~~~
Poiesis
I hear you; a lot of people feel the same way (I'm lucky enough to be able to
shower at each end; if I don't bike commute it's usually more laziness).

That said, a lot of people seem to sweat less on bikes with an electric
assist; people worried about sweat might look into those as an alternative.

------
AVTizzle
>>Even if we don’t find an UberPool match for you, we’ll give you a discount
on your ride.

That's huge.

A huge problem Hitch faces is having enough demand-side riders on the market
to make the marketplace viable [1]

Uber is going to be _subsidizing the demand-side of the marketplace_ until the
marketplace matures and demand fills in.

[1] [http://www.crewlab.net/uberpool](http://www.crewlab.net/uberpool)

~~~
jordanthoms
And they've just collected 1.2 billion to help them along with that.

------
msoad
There is a car sharing service in France called Blah Blah. Passengers have
rated "Blah" so you don't have to share ride with people who speak less or
more than you usually.

[http://www.blablacar.com/](http://www.blablacar.com/)

~~~
megablast
Car sharing services in France are incredibly popular, everyone uses them.
This is partly because the government has a monopoly and keeps the trains
expensive, and stops buses from running. In the UK, buses are the way to go,
you get very cheap buses if you book in advance.

~~~
akgerber
Buses in the US are cheap, but our government monopoly rail service is even
more expensive and even slower— NYC to DC is shorter than Paris to Lyon, but
costs for a ticket a week out are higher for the low-speed Northeast Regional
than the TGV, and our low-speed high-speed train, the Acela, costs more than
twice as much as the TGV.

~~~
superuser2
How do private corporations build rail infrastructure without government?
Wouldn't you need to negotiate with tens of thousands of private property
owners, such that one holdout would be enough to kill the project?

How is this possible without eminent domain?

------
bluthru
It would be interesting if Uber quantified carbon requirements per passenger
mile and used this rating to encourage users to share rides. Uber users could
get benefits or discounts for being green.

~~~
chatmasta
Yes, I came here to post this. Uber could accrue some nice PR by reporting
aggregate statistics in terms of Co2 saved, dollars saved, etc. They could
also report those stats on an individual level.

Still, these calculations could be pretty difficult. There are a lot of
unknown variables. What was each customer's alternative mode of transport? Did
the customer actually have a car before? Etc.

Re: your incentive point, I'm not sure how that would work with emissions
since it would basically just be "who drives the most," but I could see Uber
promoting some incentive programs to get people to _sell their car._ They
could even buy cars from people, in exchange for cash and/or uber credits,
then repurpose those cars as uber vehicles.

------
dojomouse
We're building a similar service at Teleport, and recently ran a few numbers
on the benefits of this sort of trip sharing assuming large scale and self
driving EV's. Really can change the entire transport experience in cities -
cleaner, faster, safer, cheaper.
[http://teleprt.com/50-cities/](http://teleprt.com/50-cities/)

------
acabrahams
I've been waiting for something like this to arrive for a while. In Israel and
the West Bank, services called sheiruts act as mini-buses; they're taxis that
pick up multiple passengers going in the same direction, usually for the same
price as a public bus ticket. When buses are scarce, they are a really useful
service. Could UberPool be like this?

~~~
jfoster
Sounds similar to songthaews in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Aside from bikes, they
seem to be the primary way of getting around and you just hail them like a
taxi, talk to the driver to confirm that they're headed in somewhat the right
direction, and it all works a bit like a dynamically selected bus route.

~~~
acomjean
This was common in Fiji. You stand on the road and flag down the van, make
sure its going to the right place and pile in. Its like private bus.

------
untog
A lot of people have tried this idea before, but they've never had the
infrastructure or users to pull it off. Uber definitely has the
infrastructure, but I suppose time will tell whether enough users sign up for
it.

Imagined future scenario, though: UberPool Buses. At the right peak times it
could work, but I wouldn't like to use it in New York.

------
dk8996
Where can I bet that Google will buy Uber and make self-driving Uber cars? (I
am not joking, do people know where I can place a bet on this?)

~~~
vikramhaer
Google ventures invested $258M in Uber about a year ago, I'd say it's highly
likely that if self-driving cars pan out, there'll be an Uber fleet of them.

------
totalrobe
What happens if you are requesting a ride and have a friend or two with you?
UI could get a little complicated. And will they charge extra now if there is
more than one rider?

~~~
singlow
If you are all starting and ending at the same location it is cheaper to do a
single fare.

~~~
badusername
Seems like you can split the fare with everyone that's riding.

[https://support.uber.com/hc/en-us/articles/201836586-Can-
I-s...](https://support.uber.com/hc/en-us/articles/201836586-Can-I-split-a-
fare-with-a-friend-)

~~~
prezjordan
> there is a $0.25 fare split fee for each participant.

We just use Venmo :)

------
soheil
Almost in every single other country this has always been the way to ride a
taxi.

"This is also a bold social experiment." come on!

They're making it sound like they discovered nuclear fusion.

~~~
stbtrax
How do people organize cab shares in other countries?

~~~
pyvpx
"are you going in the same direction? would you like to split cab fare?" is
usually how it goes, depending on the local dialect.

------
malandrew
Based one what time you typically leave the house and where you go everyday,
I'm certain there's also room to mature this market by suggesting carpooling
groups to anyone who has tried to use the service at least once:

For all users who try UberPool at least once, find clusters where they all
leave regularly at approximately the same time and head to the same
destination.

Uber can even ask something like "Do you mind if we collect your commuting
data for 1 week. If there is low variability, find clusters and suggest
routes.

It think this could work bananas in places like SF-SouthBay, SouthBay-SF, and
Washington DC where a sizeable chunk of people move back and forth in the same
direction each day.

------
velocitypsycho
Now if this worked for my commute, that would be amazing. Would take it in an
instant when the trains were far apart.

------
rottyguy
Along the lines of reducing fossil fuel consumption and having just returned
from a trip to Copenhagen and Amsterdam, I really wish the bicycling culture
was better embraced in the States in the bigger cities. NYC has Citibike which
I find fantastic! But DC doesn't have the density of bike stations to make it
convenient. How are the other cities? Miami, Chicago, San Fran, etc?

~~~
samirmenon
Boston has a very strong biking culture, partly due to the large number of
university students there.

~~~
epi16
Well, putting aside the endless war between cars and bikes... Several of my
friends who bike regularly (hasn't happened to me, thankfully) have been hit
by cars while biking, even though they were following the law and had all
manner of blinky lights on their person.

I think that while the biking culture in Boston is great, it won't be a good
replacement for cars until there are more bike lanes and more careful drivers.

~~~
rottyguy
Copenhagen has curbed lanes dedicated to bikes and the people take full
advantage. I saw several Christiana Bikes on the road while there (In fact one
lady used one to drag back a loveseat sofa!)

[http://christianiabikes.com/en/](http://christianiabikes.com/en/)

------
jfoster
"Our friends at Google will also be joining us in the beta. They share our
vision of a more energy-efficient world with less traffic congestion and
pollution in our cities and are excited to be early adopters of UberPool."

I don't quite understand what that means. Are they saying that all Google
employees have access to the beta, or is Google involved in some other way?

~~~
ohhoe
I'm assuming that google is having its employees participate in the beta so
they can share rides to the HQ

~~~
free2rhyme214
Yes. It's a good idea since they also invested so much into Uber already.

------
gwintrob
This reminds me of Via[0]:

"Shared rides in a premium SUV or Mercedes van. As fast as a taxi at a
fraction of the price."

All of the competition in ride sharing has been great in the Bay Area. UberX
is sometimes in a price range closer to riding the bus or BART.

[0] [http://www.ridewithvia.com/](http://www.ridewithvia.com/)

------
jljljl
People have talked about Uber as a way to reduce pollution and wasteful
driving, and the limits of Uber's ability to do so since it still needs to
address peak usage.

If they make this work, the Uber could turn out to be a huge environmental
boon, reducing both the number of cards manufactured as well as fuel and road
usage.

Hope it works...

------
twelve40
I like the general idea but don't completely get it

> just happens to be requesting a ride along a similar route > Uber from the
> Castro to the Financial District

Isn't 90% of the time it's like, one person goes to the Financial District,
and the other one will just drop off Mid-Market, or just a few blocks towards
SOMA, thank you?

So do you get stuck waiting until there is a person with just the same exact
route, or how is this partially-overlapping ride determined and split? You
detour a few blocks to the right to accommodate the "nearby SOMA" person? But
what if the original person says, screw SOMA, I'm not paying or waiting for
any detours, I need to get to FD on a straight line asap.

Sounds pretty hard, matching millions of similar but different routes.

~~~
bobbles
I know if the price was cheap enough I'd definitely be willing to put up with
slightly longer pickup delays

(considering that it'd probably still be faster than normal taxis around here)

~~~
netcan
I think you can look at it as (convenience + quality)/price.

Different people evaluate & value those three differently. To get a customer
that equation needs to yield a higher value than the next best thing. To win
in a a market completely, you need to tick all three boxes. Better, cheaper,
faster.

Uber focused on high quality early on, the limo market. They beat limos for
price and convenience (the competition sucked) and matched the quality. More
expensive than taxis, but better quality (nicer car). As the network grew,
"convenience" went up, fast pickup times. They expanded downmarket (lower
price & quality) with uberXand to take on Taxis.

I think this ridesharing/carpooling, if it works well might find an unserved
niche somewhere between Taxis and public transport.

A next step might be something close to public transport. Basically minibuses
running something similar to shuttles between hotels and airports. Most cities
have these. They are possible because hotels can coordinate. That's why they
are more common between the hotel and the airport than the other way around.
There are probably lots of other use cases that are just missing the
coordination.

~~~
garethsprice
> A next step might be something close to public transport. Basically
> minibuses running something similar to shuttles between hotels and airports.

There's also a huge and mostly hidden network of "dollar vans" in cities with
large immigrant populations, private operators serving areas not touched by
public transport routes. Not saying that Uber will expand this far downmarket,
but interesting to note that what you describe exists in some form already.

[http://mashable.com/2014/04/10/dollar-vans-new-
york/](http://mashable.com/2014/04/10/dollar-vans-new-york/)

------
netcan
This is interesting. It's potentially a bridge into "mass" transit.

Sam Altman's insight about his own (high end) car use and the potential cost
of replacing it completely with Uber is one legitimate example of how they
could expand beyond of the taxi market. I don't think it's impossible for uber
to have a few hundred or thousand core users in major cities that spend
$10,000 per year on Uber. That only really applies to a small group of wealthy
individuals.

But, the real big markets are usually nearer the bottom of the pyramid.

------
Disruptive_Dave
Cab With Me[1] is doing this in NYC right now (head of biz dev here). MIT came
out with a study[2] that showed ~80% of cab rides in 2011 could have been
shared, if there was an easy facilitator.

[1] [http://www.welcome.cabwith.me/](http://www.welcome.cabwith.me/) [2]
[http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2014/03/how-system-
shared-t...](http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2014/03/how-system-shared-taxi-
rides-could-transform-new-york-city/8530/)

~~~
free2rhyme214
Lol be careful of Uber. They've been known to try aggressive tactics in the
past.

~~~
Disruptive_Dave
<\-- locks deadbolt

------
pastalex
In NYC, a startup called Bandwagon has been doing this--matching users going
the same way--for awhile now, and is pioneering a system for shared rides at
the taxi lines of airports and events.

This is what they did at CES: [http://blog.bandwagon.io/post/92569728340/meet-
the-hop-lane-...](http://blog.bandwagon.io/post/92569728340/meet-the-hop-lane-
upgrading-the-taxi-line-by-sharing)

------
antaviana
How soon are we going to see demonstrations of Uber drivers complaining about
Uberpoolers taking their business?

------
seliopou
Seems like Uber will eventually converge on a model of privately-owned
publicly-accessible mass transportation.

------
prawn
This could easily be extended to larger vehicles (minibus) plying regular and
popular routes at peak times. Do a pick up from a few square blocks and drop
in a particular work district. Could be more convenient than a bus and
eventually approach the same pricepoint.

------
mrsuprawsm
A buddy of mine already made and launched the exact same thing (without Uber
branding, obviously):
[http://www.jumpinstudent.co.uk/](http://www.jumpinstudent.co.uk/)

It was really successful; and he got bought out for a decent sum of money.

------
coldcode
I wonder how well this would work in a less concentrated city than SF. Uber
doesn't even go to my house (S of an interstate in DFW area) though I don't
know why; maybe it's a volume problem which would make pooling even less
likely.

------
jlas
There's some weird styling going on in the "Mobile Number" input box:
[http://i.imgur.com/bSG9eKx.png](http://i.imgur.com/bSG9eKx.png)

~~~
mayneack
Same on desktop chromium browser + ubuntu 14.04

------
Grue3
For a service that entirely depends on network effect, they surely aren't
making adoption easy. It's the same mistake Google made with Google+.

------
johnvschmitt
With all the data, carpooling/sharing a ride is great.

But please, the phrase "game changer" is horribly overused today & diluted.

------
free2rhyme214
The most exciting thing about Uber and Lyft launching these sharing services
is not owning a car in the future. What do you think?

~~~
jamesjyu
Imagine the combination of Uber and self driving cars. If Uber succeeds,
they'll own a big piece of transit infrastructure.

------
jbarham
Every time I read about Uber I wonder who the target market is. Then I
remember that as a father of three young boys our car has three car-seats in
the back row, a CD in the CD player and more in the glovebox to keep the boys
quiet, snacks in the center console to placate them when they're hungry, and a
stroller in the trunk. And then I realize that Uber is made by and for young,
single, childless people with lots of money who live in SF and NY.

~~~
prawn
Why does the target market need to be young, single and childless? It would
work for couples without kids, or parents with kids who've left home or are
being left with a sitter. Or families where the children can go 30 minutes
without needing food or entertainment. Or older people who aren't keen to
drive in a city or deal with parking.

Obviously those with young children specifically are in a different position
and that's likely to be hard to address. You'll have a particular
pram/stroller you use and specific snacks. You're more likely to be tied to
your car if you don't want to be packing and unpacking each time. I get it - I
have a car with a car seat for a 2yo. But there are also loads of times I'd
use an Uber service alone or with my partner or even with a child if it were
prevalent in my city.

~~~
jbarham
I'm acutely aware of the fact that the main reason I own a car is because I'm
married w/ children. When I was single I quite happily got around by bicycle
and motorcycle...

But transporting young children is a specific use case, and it's a very common
one where something like Uber isn't really an attractive or viable substitute
for your own car given the bulky support paraphenelia required, often by law
(car seats, strollers etc.)

------
philmcc
re: beta signup.

How will they know if I'm in their area? I wonder if they cross-referencing my
phone # with my existing Uber account.

------
ricardobeat
In case any Uber employee is looking: scrolling on this page is almost non-
functional on an iPhone.

~~~
stusmith1977
And on desktop too. Page up / page down keys don't work unless you focus the
page. There is a scrollbar within a scrollbar.

------
dkarapetyan
Is uber trying to eat its own tail?

------
aluhut
I wonder how this will influence the legal problems Uber has here in Germany.

~~~
Vik1ng
Germany already has such similar services.
[http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/](http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/) etc.
Uber is still not legal, because it's commercial. And those services kick out
people if they just do it for the money.

------
up_and_up
Shared taxis have existed for long time. This is just optimized with the
iPhone app. It's really time vs money. You are paying less but it will likely
be longer trip since the other rider is not likely going to your exact
location.

------
whoisthemachine
The signup form doesn't work in firefox nightly :/

------
vamega
The First Name and Last Name fields do not appear to work in Firefox. The
input is correctly entered, but the text is not Visible.

Disabling the box-sizing: border-box shows the content. Anyone ever run into
an issue like this before?

------
welder
Ride-sharing that can actually work!

------
free2rhyme214
I believe Uber will be successful with this idea and kill quite a few startups
in the process.

------
keeptrying
This is obviously a data grab.

Also has the potential to kill their own service. Very smart.

~~~
madeofpalk
Data grab?

How would this give them any more data than they already have? What extra
data?

