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Business Users of Uber Will Be Able to Schedule Rides

June 11, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Uber is maintaining its status among the ride-hailing companies by constantly bringing new features passengers and drivers can use to make their relationship more comfortable.

So, Uber will now allow riders to schedule their rides – provided they’re not more than 30 days in advance.

The first people to get access to the new service are business travelers located in the Seattle area; the scheduling option became available at 11 a.m. on Thursday. Quick expansion to more cities is something Uber has already promised.

Tom Fallows, Uber’s head of global experiences, said the new option hopes to attract meticulous planners with busy calendars to their side, as well as riders who “want an extra degree of assurance Uber will be there when they head out.”

No-one wants to miss an early morning flight because there’s no ride to take them to the airport. “They sleep better knowing their Uber ride is arranged,” Fallows said.

App users with a business profile will be able to schedule a trip by simply choosing a route, and set a date and time. According to the announcement, scheduled rides will not be pricier than the normal Uber ride; however, they are similarly subject to surge pricing.

“If you’re requesting the ride at 8 a.m. on a Monday morning and it’s super high demand, surge may apply just like it normally would,” Fallows explained. “We send riders a push notification on the way, notifying them if there’s any surge.”

The scheduled rides can be modified up until the driver has been dispatched; when users receive the push notification about the driver already being en route, they will still be able to cancel without penalty within 5 minutes.

Fallows added that the option to schedule rides will initially be available only on UberX, but the taxi-on-demand company wants to expand it to other Uber lines soon, such as black cars.

Seattle was chosen for the first launch because the city has a lot of business travelers. Even though scheduling is a simple concept, Fallows explained it needed heavy planning so the dispatching system would work efficiently.

Uber’s engineers are expecting to receive feedback for the Seattle rollout of the new feature.
Image Source: Forbes

Apple Inks $1Bn Investment Deal with Chinese Rival of Uber

May 15, 2016 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

Taking a taxi is cheaper than driving your own car in China, and Uber’s toughest competitor in the country, Didi, owns 99 percent of the taxi-hailing market.

Apple Inc. has just poured $1 billion in Uber’s largest competitor in China, Didi Chuxing Technology Co. Analysts believe that the move is expected not only to help the U.S. company’s driverless car business grow, but also help Apple mend its tense relationships with Beijing.

The decision was announced a week after the Chinese government banned iTunes and iBooks from the country. The U.S. tech giant is directly interested in China as most of its manufacturing plants are based there. So, investing in the country’s largest home-grown ride-sharing business might be the best way to reduce the tensions.

Didi Chuxing is an important company for the Chinese government though the firm was nearly shut down when it started to offer ride-hailing services like Uber. Back then, Beijing said that Didi was putting fully licensed taxis out of business.

As a response, Didi agreed to allow taxi drivers to feature on the company’s e-hailing app and offer their services. Also, the company recently closed a deal with Shanghai-based taxi company Haibo to split revenues.

Didi network comprises 400 cities and 99 percent of the taxi-hailing market. In 200 cities the company makes profit. Furthermore, partnerships with local taxi companies also help Didi reduce traffic congestions, a growing problem in China’s urban areas.

Since up to 70 percent of Beijing residents own a car, it is very difficult to go by car to any area of the city. As a result, the government had to set some restrictions, deciding which days cars can be used. Furthermore, there’s a 100 percent tax on foreign vehicles brought to the country to discourage the Chinese from buying more cars.

So, Didi is now helping the government address the country’s ever growing fleet of vehicles. By offering cheap rides, the ride-hailing company helps both people who don’t have a car and those who seek a better alternative to public transportation. In China, it is cheaper to travel by taxi than by private car due to restrictions and taxes.

Didi is confident that with a fleet of 1 million taxis it can serve the entire population of China. At the moment, taxis are the key to solving transit issues and displacing car ownership.

Apple’s $1 billion bid is the same amount Uber is reportedly hemorrhaging in China. Plus, Didi is also interested in building a fleet of driverless cars just like Apple, which has now also the opportunity to build strong alliances with key Didi investors and partners such as Lyft, Tencent, Ali Baba, and Grab.

Image Source: Wikimedia

Uber Is Not Just Rebranding Its App Icon

February 3, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

If you happened to take out your app list on your phone recently, you may have noticed something that was a little off about one of your installed apps: it would appear that Uber is not just rebranding its app icon though, as the company seems to be looking to expand its services too.

With the change being a mere day old now, users and others seem to not have a very positive selection of feelings towards the change. Twitter has been booming with angry tweets saying that the change is not the greatest they had ever seen; however, that’s hardly a surprise when it comes to changes made by popular companies or services.

The app’s change log doesn’t say anything new; and on a closer inspection of the app itself after the update there’s hardly anything changed other than the icon and the splash screen that greets you when you turn it on. The former classic U-shaped logo is now a rather abstract form that the company explained in their presentation video.

Uber’s blog received a new entry yesterday, where the company’s CEO Travis Kalanick personally got involved in delivering the new changes to the public. And that is on top of personally getting involved in the entire revamp of the brand. According to his own post, the company feels that the new logo and icon define what the company does a lot better than before. After 4 years of developing as a brand, Kalanick says, they felt it was time to reflect the fact that Uber has matured as a company.

In Kalanick’s vision, Uber is more about connecting and “moving cities and their citizens”. Along with a new website layout, the new logo is gifted with a lot more color and personality than its predecessor. Apparently, the colors chosen for each major city or zone differs.

For example, Ireland’s green to burgundy selection of colors was inspired by lush fields and brick-build houses. Mexico’s bright greens, blues and magenta reminisces the colorful alleyways and streets. China mixes the foggy nature with the bright red traditional decorations. Uber said they are planning to have a theme for each and every city or country that it functions in – accounting for hundreds and hundreds of patterns and color palettes.

The new and rather ambiguous icon takes a step away from the classic look and attempting to open new pathways for the company. As they started as nothing more than a personal driver service, Uber now does a lot more than that – food or goods transport, with self-driving car service and “more” planned to come in the future.

Image Source: 1

Uber Got a Laughable Fine and a Slap on the Wrist

January 7, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Uber got a laughable fine and a slap on the wrist – $20.000 for a company that is worth $50 billion is just despicable.

Uber has been fined just $20.000 for their God View tool, which tracks users, and also for the company’s security practices, data hack.

The popular ride-hailing company came under scrutiny after an investigation from, get this, Buzzfeed. The way the firm handles the sensitive user data is worrisome but it doesn’t appear so to the judge ruling the case.

Considering that in 2014 a security breach exposed the data of 50.000 drivers across the US, just sanctions were not taken.

Besides the mere fine, Uber was forced to agree on adopting more rigorous security and privacy practices. This means that from now on, all of their riders will have their geo-location data encrypted, as well as being password-protected.

The security breach started when an Uber engineer uploaded an access ID to the firm’s 3rd party cloud service onto popular Git repository hosting service GitHub – unbeknownst to the Uber employee that it was available to the public. This happened on, or sometime surrounding, the date of May 12, 2014.

Yet, Uber reported the incident on February 26, 2015, and that’s because they received a tip from a former employee of a competitor, which noted that the competing company had full access to a Uber security key.

Talk about being super sloppy.

The ride-sharing company claims that it took immediate action to revoke said existing access ID from their system, and issued a new one. The firm notes that, since then, it has implement a variety of encryptions and other such authentication controls, as well as hiring additional security personal and offering more, and better security training.

Because it has failed to announce this security breach, Uber received a $20.000 slap on the wrist for ” unreasonable delay”.

In other news, Yellow Cab, which is San Francisco’s largest taxi company, has just filed for bankruptcy due to competition from Lyft and Uber, as well as including several unresolved court cases.

It seems that ride-hailing companies will most definitely surpass the traditional taxi’s popularity. GM stands by that statement, and has funded Lyft with $500 million, thus helping them with their development of self-driving cars, which General Motors thinks is the future.

As reports start pouring that autonomous vehicles will be a thing by 2030, more and more car manufacturers start jumping on the bandwagon with either development or funding companies that have already begun the process.

Apple, Google, and Tesla are among the first and considered top competitors in the autonomous vehicles industry.

Image Source: 1

Lyft Gets $500 Million from General Motors

January 4, 2016 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

Lyft gets $500 million from General Motors and joins the race for the first consumer-ready self-driving car system.

Lyft is valued at $5.5 billion due to financing from GM, Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding CO., Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. and Janus Capital Management.

This is the first time a large automaker joins forces with a ride-sharing company. Considering that they are a huge threat to auto sales, as more and more urban commuters prefer to hail a ride from Uber or Lyft rather than owning a car, an alliance doesn’t seem so shocking.

With Google, Uber, Tesla and Apple heading towards autonomous vehicles, the industry is trying to adapt and reshape itself.

General Motors have announced that it would work closely with Lyft on developing a self-driving car system that would let customers order a vehicle via their smartphone, tablet or personal computer, and have said car arrive at their door step with no driver.

General Motors President Dan Ammann has said in an interview that the very first large-scale deployment of self-driving cars will be in demand on ride-sharing platforms – as in Uber and Lyft.

GM is known to have already started developing autonomous cars, and that it plans on testing a fleet of vehicles at their Detroit technical center in 2016, but there’s no news regarding on the phase of development with Lyft. Ammann has declined to comment on the status.

The fleet of vehicles will be comprised of 2017 Chevrolet Volts.

Also, GM has confirmed that their Super Cruise tech, which has been in development since 2012, will be finally available in the 2017 version of the Cadillac CT6.

In the following months, the car-manufacturer giant plans to build a series of rental-car centeres where Lyft drivers have the possibility of renting vehicles at lower, discounted prices.

Lyft had previously managed to raise about $1 billion from investors across the world including hedge-fund behemoth Carl Icahn, Middle Kingdom-based ride-hailing company Didi Kuaidi Joint Co., Tencent Holding Ltd., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., US-located Founders Fund, Coatue Management and Andreessen Horowitz.

After receiving funds from Carl Icahn, back in May of 2015, Lyft was valued at $2.5 billion.

Even though that seems to be quite huge, its direct competitor, Uber, has raised a total of about $12 billion both in equity and debt.

Uber Technologies have also managed to raise, roughly, the same funds as Uber, but the Cali-based ride-sharing company is valued at $64.6 billion – higher than even GM’s market value, which stands at $53 billion.

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Are There Uber Phantom Cars On The App?

July 30, 2015 By Michael Turner Leave a Comment

Two researchers from Data & Society claim that Uber phantom cars show up on the app and confuse users. Alex Rosenblat and Luke Stark are pointing and shaking their heads at Uber, calling it “deceptive”.

Based on allegations from both drivers and passengers, the two concluded that the app displays vehicles that are seemingly very close to the passengers, and yet the estimated arrival time displayed sometimes exceeds 15 minutes.

According to a customer support agent, the Uber phantom cars are actually partners who are looking for fares. The agent went even further with his explanation, stating that the non existent vehicles should be seen as a “visual effect” and not a real time location of the drivers that are currently in the area.

On the other hand, Uber UK completely contradicts the customer support agent’s allegations, claiming, instead, that the cars are real, but noting that they might occasionally lag behind real time.

A spokesperson claimed that Uber’s main focus is to display an accurate number of cars and locations. However, because of latency, this is not always possible. The spokesperson also added that the Uber app only shows eight cars that are the closest to the passenger, so as not to cover the phone’s screen in cars.

What is more, it would appear that (in theory, at least) the app conceals the exact location of vehicles until the taxi ride is requested, in an attempt to keep the drivers safe.

No Uber spokespersons or representatives have yet addressed the other allegations of the writer from Data & Society. Rosenblat also made a comment on Uber’s latest price increases that usually spike during periods of high demand, claiming Uber phantom cars play a role in the scheme.

While Uber maintains it doesn’t inflate the number of cars shown on the app, the study performed by Motherboard showed that, in fact, the app’s map sometimes fails to correlate with reality, leading to user confusion and deception.

The Uber app is available in a version for drivers to find clients and another version for users to find taxis. The latter version can be deceptive and display Uber phantom cars. This can be easier to notice in a more remote area than in a crowded location where you have to wait less for a ride.

Uber, founded in 2009, is now available in more than 300 cities worldwide, generating revenues of almost $10 billion yearly. While the phantom cars on their app can be intended to encourage more users to book an Uber, latency and lagging can’t be entirely dismissed as possible factors.

Image sources 1, 2, 3

Uber To Deliver The New Mi Note by Xiaomi

July 24, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The famous taxi service provider Uber has just teamed up with Xiaomi for delivering their latest smartphone model, the new Mi Note, to customers. What can you expect from this? You won’t receive your order at your door on the same day, but within minutes.

If you’re based in Singapore or Malaysia and you use the Uber app for ordering taxis, in a few days you’ll notice a new feature at the bottom of your smartphone screen. You’ll have the possibility to purchase the new Mi Note following the same steps that you would for ordering an Uber. Pick “Xiaomi” with the slider in your app, request the smartphone and presto! It will be delivered to you through an Uber taxi.

The payment mirrors the exact process used by Uber. Your credit or debit card will be charged as soon as you will place your order. All you have to do is wait a few minutes until your doorbell rings and you get the new Mi Note.

Xiaomi’s marketing strategy is, of course, merely a stunt meant to attract more business and to make the brand as known as possible. However, the quirky idea caught on and the team is even thinking of expanding to new territories. Xiaomi has just launched new products in Asia and Brazil and they are even paving their way to a US release. According to Xiaomi’s VP, Hugo Bara, they are now working on patents for protecting their design and features:

“if it’s a patent and it’s an essential patent then, of course, it needs to be licensed. Secondly, we’re building our own portfolio of patents, for defensive purposes”

Starting July 27th you’ll be able to acquire the new Mi Note for just a little under 400$. Let’s take a look at Xiaomi’s latest release. Mi Note sports a 5.7 inch screen with a 1920 x 1080 pixel display and 3 GB of RAM.

After you’ve placed your order with your Uber app, you can follow the taxi as it makes its way to you to deliver the phone. The exclusive Uber delivery will take place a day before the new Mi Note smartphone will hit the shelves in the official stores, so if you live in Singapore or Malaysia you’ll get the privilege of testing out the smartphone before anyone else.

Uber and Xiaomi’s collaboration is momentarily short timed, but there have been rumors of a long term partnership. The mutually beneficial collaboration is bound to emphasize the taxi service’s speed and to raise some hype around the launch of the new Mi Note.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3

The Best 7 Apple Watch Apps!

May 12, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Are you a proud owner of an Apple Watch? Well then you must stay in the loop with what kind of apps developers release, but it’s tiresome to try all of them out, and figure that most of them are just garbage. That’s why the team at AFP has decided to test them, and pick only the very best. The store isn’t full with apps, so we didn’t had that much of work to do, but we expect a huge burst of releases in the near future – Apple Watch is selling like crazy!

So for now, here’s our top 7 Apple Watch apps!

The Best App for Your Car – BMW i Remote

Sure, it depends on what car you’ve got, but the BMW i Remote is an awesome app. If you have a BMW and an Apple Watch and you didn’t install the i Remote you’re missing on a ton of cool features.

You can turn the heating on by using the smartwatch. Just think of those pesky winter months – start the heating 15 minutes before you go to your car, from the comfort of your kitchen, while you drink your last sip of coffee.

The app guides you to your car if you somehow forgot where you parked it. Also, you can honk your horn using the app in case you can’t figure out which BMW in the parking lot is yours. Of course, people will use it to terrorize clueless pedestrians – and of course, it’s going to be fun as hell.

Unlock your car before you even leave the house using the app – don’t know why anyone would want to do this, but hey, you’ve got the option, it’s up to you if you want use it or not.

The BWM i Remote was specifically designed with BMW i3 plug-in runabouts and the i8 hybrid with the Assist option in mind, so the app works perfectly with those two.

Also, you can monitor your driving efficiency, and the app offers the best departure times for best battery efficiency.

It’s free!

The Best Travel App – Uber

Uber is the best mobile-app-based transportation network. It doesn’t come as a shock that the app has been released for Apple Watch users.

It looks exactly like the iPhone app, and it has all of its features. The travel app allows its user to get a ride from absolutely anywhere were the Uber service is provided – it has been banned in several countries since its release. If you plan on using Uber in Belgium, France, Germany, Romania, India, and The Netherlands, you’re going to have a bad time, because the service is illegal in those countries.

Anyway, the app will offer details about the driver, how much time he has until your destination, and also it features a map where you can view where your driver is.

It’s free!

The Best Fitness App – RunKeeper

RunKeeper has a pretty long history with Apple. Released in 2008, it has garnered a huge following, and it’s the to go app when you want to track how you workout!

It feels a lot better to check your wrist for stats, rather than get your phone out of your pocket. The user can also track his heartbeat with the app.

One great feature that comes with the smartwatch app is the option to turn every single notification off. If you get easily distracted by e-mails, messages, phone calls, or Facebook notifications, you better turn it on and experience pure ignorance while you workout – You know the saying Ignorance is bliss!

It’s free!

The Best Productivity App – Evernote

Evernote has been wildly popular since the Apple’s smartwatch release, and for good reasons too. It’s the best tool for users who want to dictate, view, and update their notes through dictation on the watch. Any data can be synced to the user’s account so it’s at a touch of a button regardless of the hour, or device – no, unfortunately you can’t synch your notes to your high-tech toaster, but in the near future, hopefully, we’ll get toasters that will run iOS or Android.

It’s free!

The Best App to Keep Track of Your Finances – Mint

You don’t need to be cavalier with your finances, and adulthood is all about managing your money in order to live another day. It’s going to be really hard at first, but you’ll get there – I remember the first few months when I started to really be on my own, and how at the end of the month, with almost 10 days before my pay check was due, I didn’t have any money at all. I just ate whatever I had in my fridge, and I have to tell you, mustard with bread for a whole week will make you hate yourself like you’ve never done before.

Now, let’s get back to Mint. The app allows its user to set a limit of how much you want to spend a month, and track your limit of spending. It also shows you how much money you’ve spent in a specific period of time, so you can berate yourself at night, before you go to sleep – you seriously didn’t need to buy all those games from amazon, regardless if they were on sale or not.

It’s free!

The Best Game – Watch Tag

The Watch Tag game is one of the most social games that I have had the pleasure of playing. It’s only for Apple Watch users, so if you want to be part of the fun, get on the bandwagon and buy yourself Apple’s smartwatch. How does the game work? Well, users have points on their device, and there is a target set to your wrist. In order to win the game you must tap the targets on your enemy’s wrist – every time you do so, you deduct a point from Timmy. At the end, he who has the most points wins the crown to the kingdom – it’s usually a cup of coffee, or a Snickers bar.

It costs $0,99!

The Best Smart Home App – SmartThings

Surprisingly, the SmartThings app is available for Apple’s smartwatch. Why surprisingly? Well, because SmarThings is made by Samsung, and the two companies don’t really get along that well. The user can control all of the sensors straight from their wrist. You’ll receive notifications, and in the future, the developers have been reported to state that more functionalities will be available for their app.

It’s free!

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Google May Launch Self-Driving Taxi Service

February 4, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Image source: hereisthecity.com

A recent report claims that Google may launch a self-driving taxi service. This could mean that the relationship between the tech giant and the app-based transportation provider called Uber is flourishing. An executive from Google is in Uber’s board of directors and the tech company is a major investor in the company.

Uber was established in 2009 and since then has expanded its ride requesting app all over the world and was able to raise a fund of $1.2 billion. This sum includes an investment from Google Ventures of $258 million. On Monday Uber revealed that it was partnering with Carnegie Mellon University to develop technologies that will boost Uber’s wish of making reliable, safe transportation for everyone. The new Uber Advanced Technologies Center near the Carnegie Mellon University campus will research “the areas of mapping and vehicle safety and autonomy technology.”

This means that Uber is considering manufacturing self-driving cars. That, along with Google’s interest in creating a cab service, might mean that the two companies will start working on a self-driving taxi service. It’s been reported that there are already people working in Uber’s new center, a corporate facility separate of the CMU. The university has a lot of experience in autonomous navigation. Some of the Curiosity rover software is linked to CMU.

But Uber and Google aren’t the only companies that show interest in the self-driving car market. For instance, both Audi and Daimler grabbed the public’s attention at the Consumer Electronics Show last month in Las Vegas by revealing their autonomous cars.

Google unveiled its prototype of self-driving vehicle late last year. The company is currently testing it on the Silicon Valley test track and is expecting to try the new car this year in Northern California on the streets of the city.

By combining such a car with a taxi service, Google could make Uber’s journey even tougher. Even though Uber is growing rapidly and has a lot to offer, the company still faced criticism for the way it treats drivers and competitors. There have been reports of assaults on passengers by drivers and many other unpleasantries that seem to affect the company’s image.

The chief legal officer from Google who is also in Uber’s board, David Drummond has reportedly said to some of his fellow members of the board that Google is working on a service that may compete with the one offered by Uber. A source claims that the board is currently considering whether to ask Drummond to resign from his position or not.

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