I think this is a very good idea! I know many people around where I live who use local Uber drivers whom they trust to schedule early-morning rides to the airport and things like that. The rider will have the driver come to his/her house at the specified time, and then the driver and the rider will both turn on Uber and the rider's request will be filled by that driver because nobody else is nearby that early. This would would make it much easier to do something like that for both the rider and the driver, and I see this as an important use case because it's really the only remaining one which many people would prefer to use a car service or taxi service than Uber/Lyft. It's also much more profitable for the driver so drivers will like this a lot. Great move on Lyft's part, maybe they could consider allowing riders to directly send requests to certain drivers. The point here being that riders using Lyft like a car service have drivers they trust to come on time, not cancel, etc. which are the only potential problems I see here.
Oh wow, didn't realize that was the focus of the story -- the title should be "Lyft now allows prebooking on both sides", not the existence of a driver-specific app (though breaking it into a separate app is interesting too).
Yep. This is the key for cooperating with shuttles. First, it's much harder to fill a shuttle on-the-spot (with good routes - very important for experience), than using pre-scheduled demand. And afaik, most of the shuttle market already work on pre-scheduled, so it's a requirement(unless you build your own fleet).
But if you do manage to cooperate with shuttles, the prices they could offer are so different than taxis, that sharing may become much less of a pain point for many people.
> trust to schedule early-morning rides to the airport and things like that
It's nice that you can schedule things like this, but if I have a 6AM connecting flight to a once in a two year trip outside the country, I'm booking a rental the night before and dropping the car off early in the morning before my flight. What happens if the driver for some reason can't make it that morning? Is there a backup driver? I'd need to be guaranteed with a backup list at least 10 deep to go with the lyft option here.
So this is of course anecdotal but the only time I book taxis is when it's very important I get somewhere in time, like catching a plane early in the morning. Given the nature of Uber/Lyft it would take a lot before I would trust them with this.
Are taxis more reliable than lift/uber where you live? My experience in Australia is the opposite.
I never had a uber (no lift here) not showing up , while booking a taxi is almost like a lottery. Few years back our office manager booked 4 cabs for 6pm of the following day because we had a work function to go to. The first cab showed up at 6.50 after countless calls to the taxi company, the other never did.
We ended up calling 3 uber and we were on our way within 10 minutes.
That was the day I swore to never get on a taxi again, unless I really really had to.
So this is of course anecdotal but the only time I use Lyft (I avoid Uber) when it's very important I get somewhere in time, like catching a plane early in the morning. Given the nature of Taxis, it would take a lot before I would trust Taxis with this.
Edit: The last time I booked a taxi it was 2-3 years ago for a 4am ride to PDX. I booked two to be safe, only one came anyways.
I think this strongly depends on your local taxi industry. I would never trust a "booked" taxi to turn up on time or at all. There is a reason that Uber became so popular.
In Boston, my experience for many years has been that when booking a taxi the evening before a morning flight there's a 50% chance they'll show up (at all). This both dealing with dispatch centers and direct numbers of drivers.
With Uber/Lyft, I can see the approximate ETA and general availability of cars even before I order the pickup, plan my morning accordingly, and be confident I'll get to the airport on time.
In Palo Alto, taxis are incredibly unreliable. You call for a taxi, they give you an ETA, then they pass your request off to someone else (who in my experience is often not an actual taxi driver). That person is coming from somewhere else, so the ETA is way off, and when you call back to see where the driver is it's a big game of telephone. After 20 mins you realize you should have just used Uber/Lyft and you do that instead. Needless to say, we never use taxis anymore.
I tried to use the Uber pre-ordering for a taxi to the airport a couple of weeks ago. Magically a surge started in my area a couple of minutes before the order was executed. After a driver had been routed, they notified me there was a surge, but did not tell me the amount. It wasn't until the ride finished that my estimated $30 trip actually cost me $85.
Having been severely burned on two occasions by taxis booked for a flight, which didn't show up, and the dispatcher not caring at all and telling me another car would come in "45-60 minutes", by which time I would no longer need to go to the airport as my flight would have left without me... Well, I would trust pretty much any other option before I would ever try to use a traditional cab for an early morning airport trip again.
I don't think scheduling a ride a few days in advance actually helps the drivers. One of the best things about Uber or Lyft for the drivers is that they don't have to think about scheduling, they're told exactly where to drive.
If they have a scheduled ride and they forget about it, or they're stuck waiting around to make that ride and lose business, that doesn't seem like it will be popular.
One big thing that Uber needs to fix is the incentive scheme. One of the Uber drivers I talked to said she hated how they were, in my words, gamified into earning their incentive bonuses. And the incentive bonuses change every time, so it makes it hard for them to keep track. That's something Uber needs to change in order to increase driver satisfaction, making it clearer and more consistent on how to earn the incentives which is where the drivers make more. I don't see how Lyft's "Power Zones" are any different from Uber showing where surge is occurring, but if it works, then great.
This could be something for Lyft drivers people who don't drive so regularly. You could for example spot gigs which you can handle while riding to work. If you know day or two beforehand, you can then adjust your schedule accordingly.
Think about potential drivers in rural areas. I can see this being a key feature that helps Lyft expand into areas with low population density and sparse ridership. Drivers don't want to turn on the app and wait all day -- they'd rather schedule that trip in advance.
I think the key to the article is that when the ride is booked in advance, the driver sees the route and destination. A big compliant from drivers is that you accept a ride and you don't know if you are going 1 mile down the road or 100 miles to the middle of no where. Now the driver can see before accepting the ride (for these advanced booked trips).
I agree. Almost every Uber driver I talk to is unhappy with the constant bonus grind. The bonuses tend to incentivize short rides, so my long ride requests make drivers unhappy. I don't see drivers sticking around if their working hours and pay don't improve.
The drivers are almost always running Lyft and Uber on separate phones, so it looks like a tremendous opportunity for both services to improve and capture the market.
This could be a really good thing if you're an hour away from the airport where you have a morning flight, but a really bad thing if the driver decides that morning to not take you. :)
With the caveat that I don't work for Lyft DevOps or anything (I only used to be a driver way back when)... If you need to make a critical update to the driver side your code is solidly firewalled from having to pass integration tests with the passenger side, and there's a possibility that some problems bleed through between the two different parts of the app. In the early days, there were a few updates where such things leaked through (if I remember correctly, there was one version update where the passengers accidentally could see the primetime map).
Quite frankly, I'm suprised they hadn't done it sooner.
It works pretty well if you turn off JavaScript entirely. I use the "Toggle JavaScript" Chrome extension (by "dsmith" in the chrome web store) for that.
As a rider, I haven't noticed the Lyft app to be slow or especially bloated, so it will be interesting to see if it is significantly faster once the update pushes through with the driver portion removed.
I doubt it. If you aren't a driver I think it would be senseless to be running driver code at the same time as rider code. Maybe a little less disk (flash?), but I'm not certain. I'm neither a mobile dev or a Lyft employee.
Interesting, there's obviously a demand for this feature but I wonder if it will change the way the end user books rides substantially or if its just a nice to have.
Uber has had these features for a while now. As someone else mentioned, Didi has had these features too. 71 upvotes so far. This just further reinforces my view that there is an active voting ring on HN manipulating Uber and Lyft stories in Lyft's favor, which is ironic since many of the comments on such stories talk about Uber being shady.
Throwaway because I fully expect the voting ring people to downvote this.
Downvoters and those who upvoted this story, please leave a comment explaining why this is front page worthy.
> Downvoters and those who upvoted this story, please leave a comment explaining why this is front page worthy.
We don't owe you an explanation, but I'll offer one anyway: I upvoted because it's a story about a popular tech company, and the way they're trying to improve their offering for their semi-employees. Why wouldn't I upvote this?
I dislike the hyper-hatred against Uber that has become fashionable in these parts myself, but I don't think there's any need to resort to conspiracy theories to explain this post getting to the front page.
Internet users are much too quick to interpret disagreement by others as nefarious bad faith. Please don't comment in that spirit here, unless you have evidence of abuse (in which case please send it to us at [email protected], so we can look into it). The overwhelming majority of the time, it's just other users who have different views than you do.
Because the mechanics of how these companies make these decisions, insight into a job I don't do, and competition in a space where, a year ago, I had simply assumed Uber won was interesting.
If I'm part of an organized voting ring, I didn't get the memo.
[+] [-] jswny|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kcanini|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SilasX|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] petra|8 years ago|reply
Yep. This is the key for cooperating with shuttles. First, it's much harder to fill a shuttle on-the-spot (with good routes - very important for experience), than using pre-scheduled demand. And afaik, most of the shuttle market already work on pre-scheduled, so it's a requirement(unless you build your own fleet).
But if you do manage to cooperate with shuttles, the prices they could offer are so different than taxis, that sharing may become much less of a pain point for many people.
[+] [-] sabujp|8 years ago|reply
It's nice that you can schedule things like this, but if I have a 6AM connecting flight to a once in a two year trip outside the country, I'm booking a rental the night before and dropping the car off early in the morning before my flight. What happens if the driver for some reason can't make it that morning? Is there a backup driver? I'd need to be guaranteed with a backup list at least 10 deep to go with the lyft option here.
[+] [-] Kiro|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arthens|8 years ago|reply
I never had a uber (no lift here) not showing up , while booking a taxi is almost like a lottery. Few years back our office manager booked 4 cabs for 6pm of the following day because we had a work function to go to. The first cab showed up at 6.50 after countless calls to the taxi company, the other never did.
We ended up calling 3 uber and we were on our way within 10 minutes.
That was the day I swore to never get on a taxi again, unless I really really had to.
[+] [-] jngreenlee|8 years ago|reply
Edit: The last time I booked a taxi it was 2-3 years ago for a 4am ride to PDX. I booked two to be safe, only one came anyways.
[+] [-] _rpd|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Androider|8 years ago|reply
With Uber/Lyft, I can see the approximate ETA and general availability of cars even before I order the pickup, plan my morning accordingly, and be confident I'll get to the airport on time.
[+] [-] gnicholas|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] timcederman|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marssaxman|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] quandrum|8 years ago|reply
My local taxi companies were so unreliable that I also drove and parked in long term for vacations.
It's only on the last couple of years that I feel comfortable enough to get a Lyft or Uber to airport and actually expect to make it timely ever time.
[+] [-] cortesoft|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maverick_iceman|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pfarnsworth|8 years ago|reply
If they have a scheduled ride and they forget about it, or they're stuck waiting around to make that ride and lose business, that doesn't seem like it will be popular.
One big thing that Uber needs to fix is the incentive scheme. One of the Uber drivers I talked to said she hated how they were, in my words, gamified into earning their incentive bonuses. And the incentive bonuses change every time, so it makes it hard for them to keep track. That's something Uber needs to change in order to increase driver satisfaction, making it clearer and more consistent on how to earn the incentives which is where the drivers make more. I don't see how Lyft's "Power Zones" are any different from Uber showing where surge is occurring, but if it works, then great.
[+] [-] jpalomaki|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clarkm|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] giarc|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jngreenlee|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] linkregister|8 years ago|reply
The drivers are almost always running Lyft and Uber on separate phones, so it looks like a tremendous opportunity for both services to improve and capture the market.
[+] [-] bpicolo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aptwebapps|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dnautics|8 years ago|reply
Quite frankly, I'm suprised they hadn't done it sooner.
[+] [-] yiggydyang|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _rpd|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ProAm|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adsims2001|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] draw_down|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sverige|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dfinninger|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dave84|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cjiang|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joelrunyon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jnpatel|8 years ago|reply
[0]: https://blog.lyft.com/posts/introducing-scheduled-rides
[1]: https://thehub.lyft.com/power-zones/
[+] [-] inverse_pi|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway3589|8 years ago|reply
Uber has had these features for a while now. As someone else mentioned, Didi has had these features too. 71 upvotes so far. This just further reinforces my view that there is an active voting ring on HN manipulating Uber and Lyft stories in Lyft's favor, which is ironic since many of the comments on such stories talk about Uber being shady.
Throwaway because I fully expect the voting ring people to downvote this.
Downvoters and those who upvoted this story, please leave a comment explaining why this is front page worthy.
[+] [-] pavel_lishin|8 years ago|reply
We don't owe you an explanation, but I'll offer one anyway: I upvoted because it's a story about a popular tech company, and the way they're trying to improve their offering for their semi-employees. Why wouldn't I upvote this?
[+] [-] kinkrtyavimoodh|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Fomite|8 years ago|reply
If I'm part of an organized voting ring, I didn't get the memo.
[+] [-] msoad|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] e-sushi|8 years ago|reply