re: Will Über change the modern day taxi service?

quote:

---

Nice. What a business model by the way. Complete gamechnger, esp. for our generation.


Does it get more expensive late night? The cars are privately owned and drivers just ind. contractors? They charge your card and I assume you just throw the driver a tip? Already linked with my PayPal acct. can't wait to try it.

---

Tip is automatically included everywhere I have been. That's one of the simple geniuses of the system....no physical exchange of money in any form, so no hassle or prodding or whatever. Everything is understood beforehand.

And yes, Uber will definitely use dynamic pricing models. They will charge a whole lot more on St. Patrick's Day or New Year's Eve, for instance (the cabs do the same here, though).

I was staying with a college friend of mine - very much tied into the VC world in SF - in San Francisco for several days in 2010 when Uber first launched there. It seemed like magic back then, and all the cars were badarse, $50,000+ late models. All I could think of was how much opposition they would face when they started pouring into other cities, but so far, though they've encountered quite a bit of obstruction, they've actually had less friction than I thought they would have.