In context: Uber has to be careful to balance the line between wait times and saving money as longer wait times could have a negative impact on a customer's view of the overall promptness of the service, even if they agree to it.
Uber is trialing a new feature that allows riders to save a few bucks on their fare by electing to wait a bit longer for their ride.
Quartz recently spotted a tweet from an Uber employee highlighting the feature in action. In it, the person was offered to request their ride at the current local time (4:56 p.m.) for $10.18 or wait until 5:00 p.m. and pay just $8.15 - a savings of about 25 percent.
The tweet was deleted shortly after Quartz published its story but the authenticity of the experimental feature was later confirmed by an Uber spokesperson who said the option to wait longer for a cheaper fare is being tested among all employees in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Affordability is the top reason riders choose shared rides, the spokesperson said, adding that they're internally experimenting with a way to save money in exchange for a later pickup.
Assuming the experiment is a success, it's plausible that Uber will roll the feature out to more users and areas at a later date. No timeline for its eventual arrival, however, was given.
Lead image via J. Scott Applewhite, AP Photo