Uber has been operating a pilot program for ‘Express Pool’ in Boston & San Francisco for some time but yesterday officially launched. It’s still only available in: Boston, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, San Diego and Denver. The idea behind Express Pool is that riders will be directed to walk to central pick up point (changing depending on where other rides are), riders will also then be dropped off in a central drop off area (again depending where other riders are being dropped off/picked up) and have to walk to their final destination. This little animation makes this clearer:
The advantage to Uber Express Pool is that it’s up to 75% cheaper than UberX and up to 50% cheaper than UberPool. The downside is that you’re not picked up at your location or dropped off at your destination. I usually don’t find that UberX’s price point is an issue, although if you’re using it frequently (e.g daily commute) or for longer trips then I can see the significant savings being worth it. I guess it will really depend on how good the matching technology is, how many other uber users are using it and how other passengers are. Fingers crossed they also released some promotional codes to help launch the new option, as they did with San Francisco & Boston. Click here to view Uber discounts.
Just.. take the bus?
The example route in the gif:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/37.80659,-122.4212166/37.8014795,-122.4161741/@37.8039365,-122.4200706,17z/data=!4m3!4m2!3e3!5i1
$2.75 ticket..
(Or just walk, it’s a 12 min walk, for crying out loud.)
The problem with the bus is the inconvenience. You have to wait for it and then it doesn’t take you directly to where you want to be. I’m all for the walk though unless it’s cold out….
I’ve used it quite a bit in the bay area. It’s definitely cheaper and the walk is rarely very far. In more crowded areas it even occasionally picks me up at my location. The algorithm needs tweaking though as I frequently find that it directs me to pickup spots that are bus stops, which is not very cool for the drivers – big tickets.
I have used it in Boston several times and it is at best 25% cheaper than UberPool.
It’s can pretty horrific, particularly during commuting time.
Since Uber Express Pool launched in Boston UberPool and UberX prices have skyrocketed. Express Pool is at the old Uber Pool price, Uber Pool is closer to what UberX was, and UberX can just be insane.
The only benefit seems to be there are 3 price points instead of two, but it’s not any cheaper because they raised UberPool as a result…
I disagree with this (at least in LA) price has not changed, and uber pool express is crazy cheap. santa monica – LAX at night was $8 (only !!!!) for poolexpress, 11 for pool and 14 of X.
This is kind of the same as Via.
I’m curious if these trips will qualify for ibotta and sywr. If they don’t, there’s a real chance it’s no cheaper than pool with the discounts. If they do quality then there’s a shot you can ride for basically free given that most of my pool rides are $6-7 so half off that is $3-4, from which you can earn $3 cashback
The old pool definitely qualify for ibotta, use it all the time when i was in Boston. SYW was not working