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Uber Is Laying The Groundwork For Perpetual Rides In San Francisco
http://www.buzzfeed.com/johanabhuiyan/uber-is-laying-the-groundwork-for-perpetual-rides-in-san-fra#.pqx01qweV3Uber CEO Travis Kalanick often talks about his dream of the perfect Uber trip. "It’s the perpetual trip, the trip that never ends," he said at the Digital-Life-Design conference in Europe last October. "The driver picks one passenger up, picks another passenger up, drops off the first passenger, but then picks up passenger number three and drops off passenger number two."
This week in San Francisco, Uber took a first step toward realizing the vision that Kalanick described. The ride-hail company began experimenting with a new ride option called Smart Routes. The idea is drivers will be able to both pick up and drop off passengers along a specific route, which in turn allows them to quickly pick up their next passenger. For now the company is experimenting with only two routes: Fillmore Street between Haight and Bay, and Valencia Street between 15th and 26th.
Uber Smart Routes are similar to traditional bus routes in that they follow a predetermined path between two points, but they differ by allowing passengers to request rides on demand. The catch, of course, is that customers get themselves to a Smart Route before they can use it. So it’s not exactly door-to-door service. For this reason Uber is discounting Smart Route rides by $1 or more.
With this first Smart Route initiative, Uber is clearly laying the groundwork for Kalanick's perpetual rides, which he described at the DLD conference in January as "a private bus-type service, but on demand and hyper-convenient." And profitable. As Kalanick noted at the time, the primary goal of such perpetual rides is to drop the per-person cost of an Uber trip below that of competing transportation options. Specifically, Kalanick wants the cost of transportation to fall far below the cost of owning a car.
This week in San Francisco, Uber took a first step toward realizing the vision that Kalanick described. The ride-hail company began experimenting with a new ride option called Smart Routes. The idea is drivers will be able to both pick up and drop off passengers along a specific route, which in turn allows them to quickly pick up their next passenger. For now the company is experimenting with only two routes: Fillmore Street between Haight and Bay, and Valencia Street between 15th and 26th.
Uber Smart Routes are similar to traditional bus routes in that they follow a predetermined path between two points, but they differ by allowing passengers to request rides on demand. The catch, of course, is that customers get themselves to a Smart Route before they can use it. So it’s not exactly door-to-door service. For this reason Uber is discounting Smart Route rides by $1 or more.
With this first Smart Route initiative, Uber is clearly laying the groundwork for Kalanick's perpetual rides, which he described at the DLD conference in January as "a private bus-type service, but on demand and hyper-convenient." And profitable. As Kalanick noted at the time, the primary goal of such perpetual rides is to drop the per-person cost of an Uber trip below that of competing transportation options. Specifically, Kalanick wants the cost of transportation to fall far below the cost of owning a car.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Well Said! 
