Jan 23, 2019 2 min read Essay

Uber Pool & Lyft Line Go Back to the Future

Product Background

While I am generally a proponent of Uber Pool and Lyft Line, and I think they can get even better, the display of pricing and arrival times is sometimes more disingenuous than is necessary.

One of the complaints I regularly hear from Uber and Lyft drivers is that they wish riders were more educated as to how shared rides worked and that they often misunderstood when they would arrive because of a lack of clarity around the number and frequency of stops.

This educational issue is exacerbated in both apps as the arrival times for shared rides are often shown as the same time as non-shared rides, when the non-shared ride option is selected.

Only when the shared ride option is selected is the full time range displayed. Unless Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown are going to show up in a DeLorean, those initial arrival times are likely going to be consistently wrong.

User Experience - 2018

In the same ride from OAK Airport to SFO Airport, upon initial request we see the following.:

Notes - Rides were selected at different times and Express Pool is a different product than Lyft Line, although the result is the same if looking at normal Uber Pool.

Uber has also since fixed this issue, see 2019 update below.

Uber - December 3, 2018

Non-Share Ride Selected (Uber X)
- Non-Share Arrival Time Displayed - 7:17pm
- Shared Arrival Time Displayed - 7:18pm
- Difference - 1 Min
Shared Ride Selected (Uber Express Pool)
- Non-Share Arrival Time Displayed - 7:17pm
- Shared Arrival Time Displayed - 7:18-7:37pm
- Difference - 20 Min

Lyft - December 3, 2018

Non-Share Ride Selected (Lyft)
- Non-Share Arrival Time Displayed - 8:43am
- Shared Arrival Time Displayed - 8:48am
- Difference - 5 Min
Shared Ride Selected (Lyft Line)
- Non-Share Arrival Time Displayed - 8:44am
- Shared Arrival Time Displayed - 8:49-8:57am
- Difference - 13min