[DoggettCK]

I'd be curious to see if certain locations trigger surge pricing, too. My wife and I got sideswiped about a month ago, had to go to the ER in Austin.

Got out, had no way to get back to our truck, nor to our house an hour outside Austin. Called Uber, figuring we'd at least get a ride back to the truck to get our stuff, and see if any friends could take us the rest of the way home.

Despite nothing going on in town that night, and only being about 8:30pm, the app warned me of surge pricing, saying it would be 1.5x the usual fare. Didn't have many other options, and had been happy with Uber in the past, so went ahead.

Driver was cool, and not only took us back to the truck, but drove us all the way home, complete with a flat tire we helped him change on the side of a busy, dark toll road, and running out of gas.

Wound up being $98, and that guy really earned his tip. I still wonder if the fact that we called from the exit of the ER triggered surge pricing, though. Not a great time to experiment, but I could've probably walked a few blocks and tried again, if my wife wasn't in the shape she was in at the time.

[maxerickson]

I have to ask for clarification. Did you run out of gas, or did you only run low on gas?

Running out of gas seems like a real unfortunate thing to have happen during a paid ride and falls pretty squarely on the shoulders of the driver.

[DoggettCK]

Thankfully, it wasn't sputtering on the side of the road out of gas, just the dashboard light coming on indicating that that was 10-30 minutes away.

[qq66]

I strongly doubt that Uber is dumb enough to apply surge pricing specifically to emergency rooms.

[pfarnsworth]

No it's all drive by algorithms, based on supply-and-demand. If they targeted specific locations for surge pricing, they would certainly get their asses sued to oblivion and a ton of horrible press, especially if they targeted emergency rooms.