Uber is a new company, combining elements of a private-car service and simple taxi cabs, in an effort to make it easier for folks to get where they’re going. Part of their model, however, could use some fine-tuning.
The company implemented a New Year’s surcharge that stuck San Francisco-based Uber user Dan Darcy with a $63 bill for traveling 0.73 miles. (That’s a rate of $86.30 per mile.)
You could probably get someone to carry you on their back for that rate. Uber calls this “surge pricing”, and it could be a logical way to lower demand. Uber’s ham-fisted way of presenting the whole thing, however, may help them reduce bring demand down to zero.
The article also mentions that Coca-Cola once tested a vending machine that raised prices when it was hot out. Now that is evil.
