Uber hopes that by showing fares to customers before booking a ride, a practice it follows for shared rides on its platform, it can be more successful.
Uber says it is able to predict the fare for a trip by having users enter their destination to calculate the distance, trip time, and demand for cabs in a given location.
It will not ask users to fill in the surge multiplier, hopefully putting surge pricing out of sight. It has piloted this offering in five cities in India: New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai, and a few cities in the US.
“And when fares go up due to increased demand, instead of surge lightning bolts and pop-up screens, riders are given the actual fare before they request their ride. There’s no complicated maths and no surprises: Passengers can just sit back and enjoy the ride,” Arundhati Singh and Dennis Zhao, product managers, said.
In India, 25 per cent of Uber's rides in Delhi and Bengaluru, its two largest cities, are through this service.