If the whole map is red and short, you may prefer to wear an Uber JUMP Bike instead of an UberX. Or at least if you end up stuck from bumper to bumper, the warning could make you less likely to go crazy halfway and take it away from the driver's rating.
This week, TechCrunch detected Uber superimposing blue, yellow, red traffic condition bars on his route map before greeting. Responding to the TechCrunch query, Uber confirmed that traffic estimates have been silently testing for Android users in recent months and that the pilot recently expanded to a subset of iOS users. It is already live for all drivers.
The congestion indicators are based on Uber's own traffic information extracted from its historical travel data on 10 billion trips plus real-time data from its drivers' phones, instead of of Google estimates that already feed the Uber maps.
If the traffic estimates are implemented, they could make users more tolerant of ETAs longer and less likely to consult a competing application, since they will know that their controller might take more time to collect them. congestion is the culprit more than Uber's algorithm. During the trip they could be more patients in the middle of the clogged streets.
Uber's research on traffic in India
But the most interesting thing is that seeing traffic conditions could help users to choose when to take one of Uber's options. They could navigate beyond traffic on one of Uber's new electric JUMP BICYCLES, or buy a public transport ticket from Uber thanks to their new partnership with Masabi to access the MTA plus New York buses and trains in other cities. Cheaper and less labor-intensive for Uber, these options make more sense for drivers, more traffic is there. It is an advantage for the company to direct users to the most satisfactory mode of transport, and the traffic information could guide them in the right direction.
Through a program called Movimiento Uber, the company began to share its traffic data with the city governments at the beginning of last year. The goal was to provide urban planners with the proof they need to make their streets more efficient. Uber has long argued that it can help reduce traffic by making people share trips and eliminate circles in search of parking. But a new study showed that for every mile of personal driving that eliminated Uber and Lyft, they added 2.8 miles of professional driving for a 180 percent increase in total traffic.
Uber is still finding out whether users find the traffic estimates useful before considering their permanent deployment for all. At this time, they only appear on non-shared routes UberX, Black, XL, SUV and Taxi before greeting a small percentage of users. But the Uber spokesperson verified that the long-term goal of the company is to be able to tell users that the cheapest option is option X, the fastest option is Y, and the most comfortable option is Z. traffic are the key. And now that you've had so many cars on the road for so long, you have the necessary signals to predict which streets will be smooth and which ones will be blocked at a certain time.
For years, Uber called itself a logistics company, it's not a carpool company. Most people gave a wink of complicity. All companies in Silicon Valley try to triumph over its importance by claiming to conquer a higher level of abstraction. But with the advent of personal modes of transport, such as bicycles and scooters on demand, Uber is about to win the title by taking us from point A to point B in the way we prefer.