A couple weeks ago, Uber rolled out their new Express POOL in a variety of cities, including Washington, DC. Basically the idea is that by walking a couple blocks to meet your Uber, they can route the vehicles along a straighter path, which makes for more efficient (and less expensive) ridesharing. A few days ago…
Continue reading: My Puzzling First Experience With Uber Express POOL
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"To me, this made no sense."
This is how it has been with DC taxicabs for time immemorial. So Uber now has a share of the nonsensical. I can't even imagine trying out this feature; what a waste of time and annoyance.
Well, the app and the routing algorithm claim to do all the thinking for the driver, so he/she has to follow it exactly or risk messing up the sequence of pickups. However, this also means they can't use their better judgement when it the algorithm is wrong. At least it's being recorded and you can file a complaint that the route was inefficient.
Damn, the other Michael beat me to the punch.
This reminds me of when they first rolled out UberPOOL - the routings were crap, even in cities with straightforward grid streets. Gonna stick with Lyft and Via.
I never understood why taxis (and Uber, apparently) have such a hard time in DC. It's one of the most grid-like of the major cities in the US, save the Georgetown area, and the state streets are purposely diagonal, major arteries, and all go the same or opposite direction. There's no reason why it should ever be difficult to navigate. I've canceled several Ubers in the middle of the ride because the driver was clearly from some area way OTB and the navigation app was just as clueless. Uber needs to get their act together.
Congrats, you have now experienced how terrible Uber’s DC navigation is (their time estimates are wildly inaccurate as well). I have to give the drivers my own directions, and despite it saving at least 10 minutes each time, it’s taken a hit on my rating. I’ve gone back to hailing taxis when they’re closeby because the taxi drivers are a lot less clueless and beholden to the arrows on a smartphone.
It’s an artifact of the rivalry between Uber and Google that Uber refuses to use Google Maps’/Waze superior wayfinding and give Google the data on their paths.
As a DC resident with pretty good knowledge of traffic and routes, following the GPS doesn’t work very well. When I get a Lyft, I want to set the route
Andrew, Via said your code was invalid so I used Michael’s.
Mine is jeffrey6z7i if anyone wants to use it.
Same $10 for you and $10 for me.
Save time and money by just using bikeshare. Unless it's a downpour, or you're stealing the office chair, there's zero reason to get in a car for such a small distance.
Lucky-
I uberpool every day to work (about 15 miles) and it takes me about 30 minutes. Tried uberpool express and I was stuck in a car for an hour and a half dropping off and picking up people.
I also uberpool once or twice a week from the South Bay to San Francisco. By pool, this will usually take around 75-90 minutes in traffic (never more than 2 hours). At most I will have 2 pick ups, and will arrive at a reasonable time. Both times that I’ve tried uber expresspool, i waited over 10 minutes for my pick up and then spent nearly 3 hours in a car picking up and dropping off 6+ passengers. I had never had to use the bathroom so badly.
The problem was that the app said I was guaranteed to get to San Francisco within 3 hours. Because of my experience with Pool, I thought this was the worst case scenario, that after a couple pick ups, I would just get to my destination without more pick ups. But every time the app realized we were going to get there ahead of the worst case scenario, it kept adding more people! We were getting off the 101 every 7 miles to pick up someone new. And each time we were getting stuck for 10 minutes trying to get back on the highway during rush hour.
It’s just not worth it. In fact, I’m annoyed that they greatly increased Pool prices (an average of 50% where I am) so they could introduce Express Pool at 10% less than the old Pool price. Everyone I know here (except college students) avoids it like the plague.
@SVflyer: "We were getting off the 101..."
No, you weren't. You were getting off 101, unless the San Francisco Peninsula has been relocated to southern California.
😉
same message re your referral code not being valid Andrew. Guess I will use someone else's who posted here -thanks for Via tip!
should have mentioned - I used Michael's code - so he will know to look for the $10 credit
@snic hahaha!
It is funny that Via figured this out years ago and uber can't. Via should expand to more cities (or at least get acquired by Uber). It is really the best rideshare interaction.
@snic: haha, you are right
Also, I just realized that this post wasn’t written by Lucky. Sorry, Andrew! Rough morning here.
And, yes, I have to agree with all of those who praise Via. I’ve only used it in NYC but it’s always been super efficient — often faster than UberX since the Via drivers are no nonsense and don’t waste 15 minutes going in circles around congested Midtown one-says to pick you up.
@snic "No, you weren’t. You were getting off 101, unless the San Francisco Peninsula has been relocated to southern California."
Highway 101 is 1540 miles long and continues all of the way up through California, Oregon and Washington state. @SVflyer was not incorrect about “We were getting off the 101…” since that is one of the main corridors between San Jose and San Francisco.
@Elizabeth,
snic was referring to the fact that only Southern Californians refer to freeways as “the” + route number.
As an Uber driver (in Australia), the map directs us to pick up a rider on exactly the side of the street where they are standing and so directs us around and around the block. It has a fit if we use common sense and wave to the person from across the street for them to cross over and jump in. Very frustrating.
This new CEO is a DISASTER. Every negative rider change can be attributed to him.
Took Uber Pool the other day. They missed my guaranteed arrival time by 20 minutes because the driver was re-routed to two out of the way pickups that PAST my destination.
When I wrote in to support, they went back and forth over eight times asking when this happened, what day, etc. — a common theme with them since Travis left.
Uber, and many other tech companies, have done a great job at making people think that everything they do is special, new, and unique. But all they've done here is invent...a bus. That's all this is, folks.
2 miles? if it wasn't raining you should have walked! Amazing how Uber has made people lazier.
I also have tried Uber Express Pool in DC in the past few months since it came out. My commute is about 3 miles each way. I have used it on a few other occasions in the burbs of MD as well. I have to say it is really hit or miss as far as how it goes. I live and work in DC. Uber is always surging from my condo, no matter the time or day. Pool in the morning, and even more so express pool is a colossal waste of time. 95% of the time the routes are horrible. Yesterday my express pool took me from NW DC, to Howard University, in order to get to Dupont Circle, no sense at all. What has also become annoying about both Uber pool and express is that they are picking three people up and dropping three more people off in your trip, so six people, that is far too many. Express pool rarely requires me to walk to a location, it never has from my condo. It has a few times from my office but not more than a block. when it does though the app is totally unclear as to where you are supposed to go. Sometimes it gives the address, other times it gives you nothing other than an arrow pointing, not helpful at all. To top it off some people in the pool are express and some are not. So people get pissy that they have to walk when others do not. The drop off points are horrible. I had to walk almost five blocks. Now I actually tell the driver when we are getting close where to drop me.
NYC UberPOOL is similarly inefficient. I was just sent from one side of the city to the other to pick up a passenger, which made a 15 minute direct trip closer to one hour. The bus is 45 minutes. Would have been faster. Learned my lesson!
Walk 6 minutes down the road in a snow storm... get picked up at the side of the road... drives back the way I came and passes my front door. ;/
The problem is Uber mixes Express pool and regular pool together which dosent an effecient route unfortunately. I don’t think it’s reallt fair for walking people and defeats the purpose.the other day the algorithm got it totally wrong. And together with that a walking passenger did not want to walk thus this turned out to be a very long and frustrating experience. If everyone followed r]the rules of pool it can be very good but unfortunately not everyone does.
This is my first trying out the new Uber Pool. I understood that I'd have to walk to Uber's chosen pickup spot but the app didn't say I'd have to walk home from an arbitrary dropoff point. I protested because I expected to be dropped off at home, which was the address Uber had indicated. The driver complained about having to turn, made me get out, and then proceeded to turn anyway driving right past my building. This made me extremely irritated because the only reason I'd ordered Uber was because I was carting a big, heavy package home, which the driver was totally oblivious to!!
Hello-
I drive for UBER/LYFT. After completing 5 Expresspool requests, I made a decision to reject/cancel all Expresspool rides.
1. It's dangerous! I'm always directed to meet customers at a busy street/highway with "No stopping at anytime" zone. And if the customer not at the pickup location, the app ask me to wait for 2 minutes, the the app asks me to cancel after the 2 minutes expire. Then when I start driving away, the app pairs me with the same customer and same pickup location again! Frustrating!
2. If customers have issues with each other, I get the low rating. Lol
This feature is waste of time for customers and drivers