Though it's not mentioned in the article, Uber recently partnered with Concur for business travel. Uber now sends all my ride receipts directly Concur, and my expense reports are populated automatically -- it's first-class integration right in the app.
And now Uber is opening their API? IMO, this is a huge deal. Perhaps working with Concur really drove home the sheer size of the corporate travel machine, and the massive opportunities they were missing out on by not participating in its web of partners and exclusive contracts. I know Uber already has VIP (in NYC at least) and is coming out with corporate discounts, but I'm betting we see Uber move a lot more in that direction.
"....to get its service on as many apps as possible, it is launching an affiliate program to offer up free credits to developers who get people using its service."
If they aren't offering a cash percentage, I don't think they're going to find many takers. I certainly wouldn't integrate a new API in exchange for Uber credits.
Edit: On the affiliate page, it says "Cash rewards coming soon" but it seems rather odd that they wouldn't launch with that. Generally affiliate programs pay money.
Currently, they offer $5 credit per signup for US developers.
Referring via the uber dashboard gives you $10.
Am I missing a point or why would anyone use it if you don't get cash at the moment, get $5 less, it only works for US and you can't register people via the Api?
It seems to offer a convenience for the services integrating with it that wasn't possible before. If it's a nice addition for the customer then they get value out of it.
This could potentially be great news - I've been working on an Uber client app for Firefox OS [1] using the reverse-engineering done by the Uber CLI project [2].
It's pretty a pretty basic implementation at the moment (you can currently book a ride based on an address, and not much else), but allowed me to move to FirefoxOS for my primary phone - Uber being the last 'must-have' app for me that didn't have a webapp version.
Having something official to work with (assuming they don't go down the Twitter route of not allowing anything that replicates the functionality of the main Uber app) would help a lot.
Mike here, from the Uber API team. The Request A Ride endpoint is currently only available on a whitelist basis. We'd love to hear your ideas on the integration if you'd like to share them with us!
Hey Mike! I had an idea for using the Uber Request A Ride endpoint for an app/site to allow bars/clubs to use Uber for getting impaired drivers home (ordering a ride for them). Would this be grounds for whitelisting?
Too bad it is read-only. :( TechCrunch Disrupt is coming up next month and I would have loved writing an Uber client for Google Glass. Having the user login on a desktop or mobile and then using their oauth credentials on a companion Glass app is all doable. They simply don't have any API for requesting a ride, however, once you have the credentials:
https://developer.uber.com/v1/endpoints/
They have some deep linking APIs to start their apps on Android, iOS, or a mobile web site - but none of those will work on Glass. I suppose, theoretically, I can make the HTTP requests to their mobile site as if I were a browser and a user tapping the right buttons, but that it is a lot more brittle than having an API. It will break any time they change their web site.
Being able to say, "OK, Glass,""Get me a ride" and the car shows up would be exciting. "OK, Glass" "Show me the cost and time estimate to go to the Design Center" is just a boring advertisement. Right now their API just allows boring advertisements, pretty much.
As mentioned in the blog post, that API is built but in whitelist-only mode:
What about requesting a ride? Yes, we’ve implemented that endpoint as well, but because calling it immediately dispatches a real driver in the real world, we’re releasing it in a more controlled fashion, starting with a small set of partners. Stay tuned for more on that, and please let us know if you’re interested in being added to the whitelist.
Agreed it's a shame this is read only - I'd like to build this for Android Wear, among other things.
You could build a companion app, send the HTTP request you mention, which would trigger a push notification to that user's companion app/device, which could then trigger a deep link to the Uber app :)
Hard to completely released the ability to order cars through any app to any person. Although, the API is largely going to be a part of the marketing more than anything else I would assume.
It actually is integrated, but it might not support your area (the configuration file used to tell the system where it's supported might be out of date).
Ah, good point. We are in a bit of a grey area at our current location. We don't really have UberX in this town (Middletown, CT), but we live near to the interstate that a lot of UberX drivers are on going to and from a metro they do support (New Haven, CT). So the app will call us a car, but it's always 15-20 mins for pickup time.
To answer the question that I had, how affiliates will get paid - https://developer.uber.com/earn/ says in Uber credits, and "cash rewards coming soon".
epoch timestamps don't need timezone offsets. The epoch timestamp is the number of seconds from a specified "zero" time. That number can be translated to a time in any timezone. E.g. right now:
% date +"%s"; date; date -u
1408580844
Wed Aug 20 17:27:24 PDT 2014
Thu Aug 21 00:27:24 UTC 2014
Sure, an epoch timestamp can be translated to any time zone, but what was the original time zone?
Consider these questions: Do I use Uber more often before or after noon? Is this a photo of a sunrise or a of a sunset? How late do I typically go to bed?
In the case of Uber we could try to guess the time zone from the coordinates, but it's not trivial.
This is really obnoxious in terms of rider experience though. Quite often, these drivers will stack up their next pickup on top of their current ride, even if the next pickup is nowhere near their drop-off. Very frustrating to watch the car drift along the map for several minutes, away from your location, forcing you to cancel and try again.
Presumably Uber is capable of identifying this suboptimal routing just as they can (and do, AFAIK) monitor the route your driver takes after you're picked up.
I'd hope that drivers who Uber estimates are N minutes away from pickup but consistently take N+5 to actually make the pickup are subject to penalties.
Really? That's marvelous. Is there an app begging to be written here? For the independent driver's needs, not for the supplier (Uber/Lyft etc). An aggregator of ride request feeds.
Surprised; I thought Uber was some sort of public-access ridesharing thing. If they vet drivers and license them, how is it different from any other cab service?
This is true in the Tampa area too. My Lyft driver said he was using both to increase the chances of getting a request. He also said that he got more requests with Uber.I suspect this is true in smaller cities where neither Uber nor Lyft have significant traction yet.
From a technological standpoint, there are many reasons why I feel excited and lucky to be alive during this time in history. But smarter safer transportation, spearheaded by companies like Google and Uber, tops the list.
Not really.
I use Uber pretty regularly when traveling for a ride home from a night out. It's consistent, reliable, and I don't have to worry about the driver trying to take advantage of the fact that I might be unfamiliar with the area and possibly not in my most aware state :)
If it's cold, dark, whatever outside I can call an Uber via the app and know when they're arriving. I can see how long the expected delay is to plan wrapping things up accordingly.
My experience with Taxi's in most of the major US markets is that coverage is spotty, fares can be variable, credit-card acceptance is hit or miss, and the cars and drivers are generally sub-par.
Comparing taxi's to Uber is like comparing a model rocket to the Space X program.
I'm not from the US so my view on taxis might be different. Typically I call a number and they have someone there in 10 minutes. It's rare to be taken advantage of because they know you can make a complaint to the taxi company they work for. As for cash I don't think anyone here minds. If you don't have cash on you the taxi driver will stop at an ATM for you.
I've used Uber once and it was great but from my experience with taxis Uber isn't offering much extra.
The frustrating thing is that they're so damn good at their product, and sticking it to an industry that desperately needs a firm foot up their behind.
But I agree, I'm not going to give my money to a company that's so willfully unethical - and unapologetically, repeatedly so.
I find this problem really strange to be honest. Lyft guys are capable of solving dispatch issues, so why don't they introduce limits in their ToS? For example 5 cancellations in a row - ban. 25%+ cancellations over a period of time - ban. Or instead of a ban, start charging for cancellations over some threshold. If they set the threshold and the resulting action properly, they should be able to handle the bad behaviour with little loss.
I see this as one of the few social problems that can be solved with technology. Use the tech to make the incentives for this behaviour go away.
Agreed. This certainly doesn't excuse Uber's behavior, but as a startup you have to adapt and adjust to whatever issues you are confronted with. When abusive cancellations became a problem, they should have made it either impossible or expensive for the behavior to continue.
I hope you don't wear t-shirts made by slave kids in Honduran sweatshops, eat food fertilized by Monsanto, or buy anything that gives money to the Koch brothers. I hope you never drink Coke, since they kill unionizers in Colombia and Guatemala. While you're at it, I hope you never use Eclipse, since IBM supplied the Nazis.
Every company is dirty. Every single one. Even your YC-startup is taking money from VCs taking money from east coast money guys making money from all of the above. Capitalism is a dirty game.
Realizing this, you have a few alternatives. You can try to smart-consume your way out of the situation, which is laughably futile; you can turn libertarian and start justifying it in terms of economic efficiency; or you can realize that we have no option but to play a rigged game while there isn't another game in town and start creating something better.
That's defeatist and dismissive. On a marginal level we should be exposing immoral decisions made by companies so that they at least try to give the perception of being moral, which a lot of the time means having to make a moral decision. On our spare time we should be agitating and propagandising and what not, but just because the most efficient and affordable companies are usually the most exploitative, it doesn't mean we should act like there's nothing we can do about it.
I've spent a large part of my life doing various pro-union anti-corporate-misbehavior etc activism and have come to the conclusion there is literally nothing us plebs can do at this point. The MEND/AQI style asymmetric warfare is literally the only option left, and that only works on the periphery, not the core. Consumer and traditional activism is entirely toothless because the economy has shrunk to the point where concessions can no longer be made. The labor-capital relationship of the 50's and 60's is dead now.
Uber is certainly not the least moral company and being upset about them prank-calling Lyft is just laughable. When was the last time you drank Coke or wore a Gildan t-shirt? Hell, look at the tags on the clothes you're wearing right now and try to come up with the moral authority to chide Uber.
I think the thing I find most objectionable about Uber's behaviour is that they're already winning anyway. They don't even need to do this kind of thing, and punching down never looks pretty.
So the amount of value they provide? The pleasant drivers? The unique value they provide over taxis? The ease of everything? This should all be overlooked because they scaled quick and a few things got out of control?
It's normal to have users cancel rides (driver just missed the freeway offramp to get to you, etc), so over a year if you have 50k requests with an average 10% cancel rate... That's 5k cancellations. Nothing crazy here.
There is a third choice: neither. You're in Toronto for crying out loud - despite the kvetching of its residents the TTC is one of the best transit systems on the continent.
Uber is shady as fuck, so is the cab industry. Pointing out the degrees to which they are shady is not particularly useful and serves only to rationalize supporting unethical actors.
There's nothing wrong with roundup-ready corn either (well, any more than what's wrong with regular corn), but I still take issue with Monsanto.
Microsoft still made immensely popular and good products, even while they were stomping all over the tech industry in the 90s.
I agree that a good product coming out of a company with abusive practices behind-the-scenes is unlikely to be boycotted widely, but the company is still shady.
I'm curious if you use Uber because of the convenience or vehicles? I use Hailo for the convenience, but I'm curious if Uber is more convenient or you just prefer their vehicles and/or driver service.
They are shooting to become "too big to fail". Now the play with bankers, media and politics show that direction. There is surely no other way to change the law in their favor in the U.S., may not be so easy elsewhere.
For that the valuation seems right and may even have to rise. It's all on paper. Think of Uber as a global taxi and delivery-service - basically aiming to become a new monopoly or the strongest player there. Taxi is very fragmented with money going to lots of pockets. Uber is one pocket.
Valuations are about the best possible future. In that future , nobody uses a car but uses UBER to order a personal or a shared car(automated or manual). 17 Billion is nothing for that.
And now Uber is opening their API? IMO, this is a huge deal. Perhaps working with Concur really drove home the sheer size of the corporate travel machine, and the massive opportunities they were missing out on by not participating in its web of partners and exclusive contracts. I know Uber already has VIP (in NYC at least) and is coming out with corporate discounts, but I'm betting we see Uber move a lot more in that direction.