Uber’s Added and Improved App Features

B1 – Low Intermediate

Following the resignation of Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick, the company announced a few app changes and added features. One of them is enabling cashless tipping.

Dogged by scandal and the resignation of its top boss, the ride-summoning company Uber is hoping to win customer loyalty with a series of changes to its app.

Chief among them: Uber riders will soon be able to pay gratuities to their drivers inside the app instead of having to tip with cash. And there is much more to come. In an email to drivers, the company said it would be introducing improvements for the next 180 days.

Uber’s commitment to turn over a new leaf comes amid an ever-growing series of embarrassing episodes, including accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, a rape-related lawsuit and the company’s use of a secret tool to thwart law enforcement. A shareholder revolt led to the resignation of Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick, on Tuesday.

So what do all the changes mean for Uber customers? Here is what you need to know and how the app now compares with Lyft and traditional taxicabs.

The biggest change for Uber riders in the coming weeks will be the ability to add a tip through the app. At the end of a trip, after you leave the driver a star rating, you can decide whether to leave a tip.

This change should be a win for both riders and drivers. In the past, by not including an in-app tipping feature, Uber did not signal to its customers that tipping was an option, leaving the possibility that drivers could give riders lower star ratings for refusing (or not knowing) to tip with cash.

The tipping button brings Uber in line with Lyft, Uber’s biggest rival, which has offered in-app tipping for years. Yet by making tipping purely optional — you could always exit the car and decide to never leave a tip, and the driver would not know — both ride-summoning apps break from the traditional experience of taking a taxi, in which drivers expect tips with cash or a credit card.

Also coming soon are some changes that should benefit drivers. Customers will have less time to cancel a ride before incurring a fee. In the past, riders had five minutes to cancel a ride penalty-free, but soon you will have only two minutes to cancel before Uber may decide to charge you $5 to $10. Lyft still lets riders cancel penalty-free for up to five minutes. By contrast, taxis cannot charge a cancellation fee because you are not on the hook to pay anything until you are in the car.

Uber will also start charging riders for making drivers wait. Upon the arrival of an Uber driver, if you take longer than two minutes to get in the car, you will have to pay for each minute that you are late. (Rates will vary by city, but in Chicago, for example, the per-minute rate for UberX is 20 cents a minute.)

Finally, in a nod to how annoying adolescents tend to be, parents who registered their teenagers for Uber accounts will soon have to pay an extra fee of $2 for each ride with their teenager.

Over all, these changes favor drivers more than riders. But think of it this way: A happier driver will probably contribute to a better ride.

Uber has also gradually overhauled its app over the past several months with new features and design tweaks.

Notably, you can now easily see how much you are generally liked by drivers. Under your profile name, your star rating (out of five stars) is prominently displayed. Tapping on the rating also shows advice on how to be deemed a better rider.

In addition, Uber recently introduced the ability to bookmark places you frequently visit. When you are en route to a favorite place, just look for the option to save the destination. Lyft offers a similar feature: When choosing a pickup or drop-off location, just tap “Add custom shortcut” to bookmark a favorite location.

In January, Uber also added the ability to synchronize your calendar with the app, making it easy to set your destination to one stored in a calendar event. For example, if you had a meeting at a restaurant, the Uber app would detect the calendar event and show the option to set the destination to that restaurant. (Weeks later, Lyft unveiled a similar feature.)

By Brian X. Chen

Discussion Questions:

1. Are you an Uber rider? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of using transportation mobile apps such as this?
2. What other ride-sharing apps are present in your country?
3. In your culture, how important is paying gratuities?
4. What other areas of Uber do you think need attention?

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10 replies on “Uber’s Added and Improved App Features”

Discussion Questions:
1. Are you an Uber rider? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of using transportation mobile apps such as this?
Yes I sometimes, use Uber, Cabify, etc…
Upsides: the apps are very easy to use, you know in advance the price of your trip, the cars are good and usually clean, etc.
Downsides: the drivers are very bad if you compares them with the taxi-drives (the really don’t know the streets and need to use google maps or waze for the trips..), they are not allow to use the taxi lane (have less traffic and your trip will last less)..

2. What other ride-sharing apps are present in your country?
We have e lot of them: uber, cabify.. and also we have CARSHARING APP in order to rent a car only for a trip and park the car free of charge… and also some BikeSharing and Scootersharing apps for the same purpose.

3. In your culture, how important is paying gratuities?
It is important but not compulsory, so if you receive a god attention or service you can give a tip. But it’s up to you.

4. What other areas of Uber do you think need attention?
As I said before, the drivers need to know much better the city in order to avoid to use the maps apps because they trigger some accidents because of that…

Good work answering your lesson’s discussion questions.

Look at how this sentence can be improved:

As I said before, the drivers need to know much better the city in order to avoid to use the maps apps because they trigger some accidents because of that…

As I said before, the drivers need to know the city better in order to so they can avoid looking at maps apps because doing this can cause them to be distracted and get into some accidents.

Keep doing this exercise to enhance your skills more.

1. Are you an Uber rider? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of using transportation mobile apps such as this?

Yes, I’m an Uber rider. I think that the best part of this type of mobility is the accessibility that you have, and you know before you get the car how much will be the ride and how much time you spend on it.

2. What other ride-sharing apps are present in your country?

It depends on the city, in Madrid we have Uber, Cabify and Bolt, but in other cities there isn’t ride-sharing apps because of the regulation or because there is not too much demand.

3. In your culture, how important is paying gratuities?

I think that we only think of gratuities in Spain when we go to restaurant and there is “no written law” that told you how much you have to give like in US.

4. What other areas of Uber do you think need attention?

I think that the app and the service is very good, but maybe they can give you water like Cabify in Spain or things like that, but the main purpose of Uber I think that is brilliant and not change is needed.

Good to have you on the PE blog! Let this be a way for you to enhance your writing skills in English.

Take a look at how this sentence can be improved:

I think that we only think of gratuities in Spain when we go to restaurant and there is “no written law” that told you how much you have to give like in US.

I think that we only think of gratuities in Spain when we go to restaurants and there is really no written law that tells you how much you have to tip like in US.

Nice work on your answers!

1. I think that the main advantage and the one that Uber has used the most in its advertising is knowing how much you are going to spend before starting the trip, then you can tell if you are looking for another company or if you are going by public transport.

2. We have a couple more, Cabify, Bolt and Free Now

3. I would say that it is more important to be grateful to family than to strangers.

4.I’m not sure but I know that they have been improving their other services like Uber Eats to create a little brand loyalty

Great work for this one. You answered the questions well.

This one is a good sentence but take a look at how you can improve it a bit more:

I think that the main advantage and the one that Uber has used the most in its advertising is knowing how much you are going to spend before starting the trip, then you can tell if you are looking for another company or if you are going by public transport.

I think that the main advantage and the one that Uber has used the most in its advertising is that users know how much they are going to spend before starting the trip, then they can tell whether they should look for another company or if they are going by public transport instead.

Keep up the good job!

1. Sometimes yes. Since I don’t have my own car, but before I used uber or similar. In terms of advantages, the ease of being able to schedule a transport, payment through the app, knowing in advance what it will cost you … Disadvantages, I could not tell you, regarding what … the comfort of your own car..

2. There are several, taxi app, cabify, uber, blablacar … they are the most famous.

3. There is no obligation to do so, in general, if the service has been good for you, a tip is given. If not, it is not necessary.

4. I haven’t used it for a long time, so I can’t tell you.

Good job practicing your writing once again.

Here is a better way to express this thought:

Disadvantages, I could not tell you, regarding what …

I honestly can’t think of any disadvantages.

Keep working on your developing your skills. Go for it!

1. Are you an Uber rider? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of using transportation mobile apps such as this? When I lived in Mexico I used it a lot, now in Spain I have not used it much. Know the cost of the trip in advance, and be able to rate how the journey was
2. What other ride-sharing apps are present in your country? Cabify
3. In your culture, how important is paying gratuities? It is not very common, it depends a lot on the service they give
4. What other areas of Uber do you think need attention? The truth is, I don’t use it enough to have an opinion on it.

Good job with your answers to this lesson’s discussion questions!

Take a look at this sentence and how it can be improved:

When I lived in Mexico I used it a lot, now in Spain I have not used it much.

When I was living in Mexico, I used it a lot but now that I’m living in Spain, I have not used it as much.

Until your next entry!

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