New York Post

Uber testing discount for riders with time

- By NICOLAS VEGA nvega@nypost.com

Wanna save money on your next Uber?

Sorry, you have to work for the ride-hailing company to get word of the less pricey lift.

Uber is experiment­ing with a new feature that offers customers a less expensive trip if they put off booking the ride for a bit — but only employees are getting to use the feature, the company said Tuesday.

The less pricey rides are usually a few minutes later than the requested pickup.

In a now-deleted screenshot posted to Twitter, an Uber employee showed how the app provided the choice of a ride for $10.18 or waiting five minutes and getting the same trip for $8.15 — a 20 percent savings.

An Uber spokespers­on confirmed the existence of the feature to The Post.

“Affordabil­ity is a top reason riders choose shared rides, and we’re internally experiment­ing with a way to save money in exchange for a later pickup,” the spokespers­on said.

The feature is still being tested internally, and public rollout would hinge on its proving viable as a concept, the spokespers­on said.

It’s the latest novel idea to come out of Uber in recent days.

Last week, the San Francisco company applied for a patent for a system that would allow drivers to know if customers ordering a ride are drunk or otherwise impaired — even before picking them up.

The system imagines a world in which you might stumble out of a bar at 2 a.m. and the app will be able to know if you are drunk based on the angle you’re holding your phone, how you are walking, how you are interactin­g with the app — and where you are located — compared with other times you’ve used it.

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