Uber will now give users the option to schedule its ride-sharing service up to 30 days in advance. The new service was first available on June 9, Thursday in Seattle, and will quickly expand to other cities. It will help busy people such as those who need to make early travel plans.
Uber chose to launch the new service in Seattle because developers there built the system. In addition, the largest city in the Pacific Northwest has many business travelers.
Tom Fallows is Uber's director of global experiences. He explained that the target market of Scheduled Rides includes people who make detailed plans and have full schedules.
For example, vacationers and businesspeople might have an early-morning flight. They can now order an Uber weeks or a month before their trip and not worry about getting a taxi to the airport.
App users can schedule an Uber ride using their business profile. They have to select a route, date, and time.
Uber customers can also change their schedule before the driver is dispatched. After they receive a push notification and the driver is on the way, Uber app users have 5 minutes to cancel without paying a penalty, according to The Seattle Times.
Scheduled Rides has the same pricing as regular Uber trips and can increase due to surge pricing. This is caused by very high demand such as during Monday mornings or big holidays.
The new service will only be available on the lowest-cost UberX at first. However, the company has plans to expand Scheduled Rides to other Uber lines including black cars.
Fallows explained that Uber's scheduling system has complex algorithms. It includes many factors to pick the right time to ask a driver to pick up a customer, including the distance, traffic jams, and the chance a driver will accept a scheduled ride.
In related news, the French government has fined Uber about $900,000 for providing illegal ride-sharing, according to Engadget. It was for its UberPOP service.
Uber ended the POP service last summer. It allows the use of vehicles owned by non-professional drivers.
An Uber spokesperson said that the company's ride-sharing service in France that uses over 12,000 pro drivers and serves 1.5 million passengers will not be affected by the heavy fines.
Here's a video on Uber drivers taking legal action: