When I hail a ride, I say: I’m going from A to B and am willing to pay C (which Uber can recommend to me) for it.
Now if nobody responds, I increase C until they do. This way the drivers know where they are going, how much I’m paying, etc. When a driver “accepts” a ride, I see their vehicle and rating, and get to choose from the people who have accepted.
And on the other end, they bid on my ride. If I offer $20, they might ask $25 instead, and it is up to me to either accept or reject that.
I really want a system where the drivers are happy, the riders are happy, and everything is transparent and open for negotiation.
Drivers usually accept new rides while in the middle of driving though. Do you really want an army of distracted drivers on their phones participating in a complicated bidding process?
And, for those relatively unusual occasions where I do take Uber, I probably have zero interest in entering into an online bidding competition. And do you really want a system where you're trying to save a few dollars by getting a bid accepted by the most financially desperate drivers?
Uber is already finding the most financially desperate drivers and filtering for them only. They’re competing for the lowest price, but actually price is only one of the things I would like to be able to select for.
I definitely don't want to bid on each individual ride, but it would be cool to have a setting in the app that lets me choose between paying more for a shorter wait or waiting longer for a cheaper ride. the driver app could have a similar setting where they can adjust the tradeoff between higher fares and inconvenient endpoints.
When I hail a ride, I say: I’m going from A to B and am willing to pay C (which Uber can recommend to me) for it.
Now if nobody responds, I increase C until they do. This way the drivers know where they are going, how much I’m paying, etc. When a driver “accepts” a ride, I see their vehicle and rating, and get to choose from the people who have accepted.
And on the other end, they bid on my ride. If I offer $20, they might ask $25 instead, and it is up to me to either accept or reject that.
I really want a system where the drivers are happy, the riders are happy, and everything is transparent and open for negotiation.