Earlier this winter, Uber created quite the commotion when it unleashed surge pricing on the unwitting masses during the first snow storm of the season. The result? A whole lot of angry customers over-paying fares by hundreds of dollars. Still, the users had been warned: surge-pricing was going to cost them, and if they did the simple math, they could have figured out roughly how much. But many New Yorkers don't want to do the math (or get gouged—but being New Yorkers, we lost that battle long ago).
Today, Uber introduced a new feature that will hopefully help customers avoid paying an insane amount for a short ride, by letting users know when surge pricing has ended for their location.
Uber's website describes Surge Drop as a function that will “help smooth out the demand spike” and allow users to wait around at that party just a little longer so they can find the best deal. In the screen shots of the updated app, which should be available to Apple users by the end of the week, there's a countdown that will inform users about how long to wait. But won't everyone just wait it out? Probably during busy periods, that wait will be quite a while, but as Uber points out "at those times when your schedule is flexible, you can hold out for a ride that’s as affordable as it is reliable."
