| I can see it now: Londoners huddled outside of the barred-up tube entrances in the rain, moaning privately to themselves about the lack of transportation, until one clever sod whips out his smartphone and announces, "Uber will give us 50% off if we split!" Dozens of commuters will scramble to share a cab with him as they excitedly scroll through the options for different drivers. "This one's only got four stars!" says one Uber virgin, shocked that anybody would consider less than five. "Don't worry," says one of our Uber-savvy commuters, "they regularly prune the list of people who're getting poor reviews. I read it in an article on Hacker News." "You read it on what news?" says another. As the commuters split evenly into fairly sensible groups based on their desired destinations, the cars begin to arrive and they all pile in, leaving the pavement empty but for a busker and a Big Issue salesman. As the final satisfying slam of an UberX car vibrates throughout the street, our new, friendly passengers get to know each other. "This is rather nice, isn't it?" "Pfft, who needs the underground?" says one, as they sit in gridlocked traffic on City Road, merely two hours from their destination, one-and-a-half miles away. |
"Oh, it means Uber can charge you whatever they want during peak times."
"But you said we were getting 50% off?"
"Oh but we are! 50% off the surge price."
"So if they put the surge price to 2x then we'd be paying the exact same amount we would anyway, and this promotion would be for nothing?"
"Well, yes. But I'm sure Uber would never do that. Uber is my best free-market friend!"