Ridesharing has become a popular -- and controversial -- alternative to traditional taxi services. On the face of it, it seems simple enough: The apps match people needing a lift with drivers who use their own personal vehicles to give rides. You create an account with a service through the app, then use it to request a pickup from your location. The apps also handle payment through your saved credit card. Currently, the top three contenders are Uber, Lyft and Sidecar.
Traditional taxi services are not ignoring the situation, of course. They are not only putting pressure on local governments to regulate or even ban ridesharing services (for example, in December 2014, prosecutors in South Korea indicted Travis Kalanick, Uber's CEO), but are also coming out with their own mobile apps. So we've tried out a couple of third-party apps -- Curb and Way2ride -- that represent a new crop of alternatives that associate themselves with existing car services.
Come along for the ride.
Ridesharing services
Given the number of always-changing factors involved -- such as which drivers you happen to get, what city or town you're located in (services in Minneapolis or Atlanta may not be the same as those in Los Angeles or New York), what area in that city/town you need to leave from and get to, and what time you are planning to travel -- it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to definitively declare which of these offers the best transportation service.
As a result, we've focused on the features of the apps themselves: how they work, what choices they provide, how intuitively those choices are presented, and how much information they give you about your driver and your ride.
To test the apps, I installed them on both an iPhone 4S and an iPad 2 -- although there are no iPad-specific versions; the apps operate the same way on each device. (There are Android apps for each of these services as well.) I took two or three rides with each service, from both my quiet neighborhood in San Francisco and from relatively busy parts of town.
Uber
Availability:200+ cities/areas in 53 countries
Rates: Vary by city, type of ride, current demand
Uber is the oldest and probably the most famous (or infamous) of the rideshare services. Officially launched in 2010, it now offers rides in more than 200 cities worldwide, including more than 100 in the U.S.
After you download the Uber app (free, like all the apps in this roundup), you set up an account with your email address (for sending receipts and so on), your mobile phone number and a password. The company then sends you a text message, to which you reply in order to confirm your phone number. After that, you create a profile with your name and set up an automated payment method. You can enter your credit card number manually or scan your card, or you can link your profile to your PayPal account.
Ordering a ride is quick and straightforward. The app opens with a map showing your current location (assuming you've given it permission to access your location) with the corresponding address listed at the top. (Check it, though -- with all these apps, the address is often off by a house or two.) The map also shows the location of nearby Uber cars. A big black button shows the estimated time to pickup; pressing the button summons your car.
Uber offers several levels of service, selected with a slider bar along the bottom of the screen. UberPool lets groups of one or two people split the ride (and the cost) with others along more or less the same route -- you get a 20% discount even if no matching rider is found and a 50% discount if they do find a rider to share your trip.
The second option, UberX, is a standard solo ride; the third, Black Car, calls up higher-end sedans or SUVs.
The Uber website also describes a Lux option, "the finest cars with prices to match." That option wasn't available on my copy of the app (which could mean it's not offered in San Francisco yet). The company is also rolling out a level of service called Taxi that will call traditional cabs. Drivers will use their meters, and the app will automatically add a 20% tip and a $1 booking fee.
After you click to confirm where you want to be picked up, you can enter your destination to get a fare estimate. You also get a confirmation screen that a driver is en route, giving their name and what kind of car they're driving, along with their photo. You can click on the description of the car to see its license number; clicking on the name of the driver brings up a screen that lets you call them or send a text message. (I used this feature to cancel a ride that I'd accidentally ordered.)
Unlike the other apps in this roundup, Uber doesn't give you a way to tip the driver when your ride is done; it just tells you your fare. You do get the chance to give your ride a star rating and leave a comment if you wish. (And the driver gets to rate you as well).
It's worth noting that this final screen was the first time I saw exactly how much I paid -- any fare I might have seen earlier was just an estimate.
Lyft
Availability:60+ U.S. cities/areas
Rates: Vary by city, type of ride, current demand
Lyft is the service that features cars with fuzzy pink mustaches on the front or on the dashboard -- silly, but actually helpful when you're waiting for your ride. It began in 2012 as a spinoff of a long-distance ridesharing service called Zimride, and was renamed Lyft in 2013.
The Lyft app is a nicer version of the Uber app -- it operates much the same way, but with a friendly turquoise and pink color scheme (starting with a pink balloon rising up on your screen) rather than Uber's starker black and white appearance. Unlike the other apps, registration doesn't require a credit card (though you'll need to register one for payment). And rather than replying to a text message, the message contains a confirmation code you enter into the app. Other than that, the process is basically identical.
The service gives you a map with a pin at your location and a readout of your address, animated cars moving around the nearby roadways, an estimate of how far away the nearest ride is, and a big button labeled "Request Lyft."
Lyft also offers multiple levels of service: Lyft Line (which is currently available only in San Francisco and Los Angeles) is a shared ride option that, Lyft says, can save up to 60% on the fare.
Plain Lyft is a personal ride, available for solo travelers or groups of up to four. And Lyft Plus will bring larger cars and SUVs, aimed at those traveling with suitcases or boxes. As with the Uber app, you select which service you want with a slider.
You can tap on your address to change your pickup point, bringing up a list of nearby businesses as well as a field for typing in a different address. On this screen, you can also save an address as "home" or "work" for easy selection next time -- unfortunately, you can't simply designate your current location as "home" or the destination you've already typed in as "work," but it's still a nice touch and a time-saver. When it does come time to enter your destination (after you've already requested a ride), you can choose from a list of previous addresses you've been picked up at or taken to.
After you request a ride with Lyft, the app tells you the name of the driver, what kind of car they're driving, and their license number. And as with the other apps, you can watch the little animated car get closer on the map.
Once you arrive at your destination, you see your fare and get the option of adding a tip. The app shows some preset amounts ($1, $2, $5, for example), or you can type in something else.
And finally, you get a chance to rate the ride and provide the reason for your rating (and your driver gets to rate you).
Sidecar
Availability:10 U.S. cities/areas
Rates: Vary by driver/car, current demand
Sidecar started offering rides in early 2012 and drew attention when it offered free rides during the 2013 South by Southwest conference. Compared to Uber and Lyft, Sidecar feels like more of a "down home" (or "low rent," depending on your point of view) option. While Uber gives a sort of "let us handle everything" vibe, Sidecar involves more interaction -- which I preferred, as it turned out.
You create an account with Sidecar pretty much the same way you do with the other two services: Enter your name and mobile phone number, confirm the number by replying to a text message and supply a credit card for payment. One alternative this app offers is to create an account via Facebook, though of course you still have to supply a credit card.
When you launch the app, like the others it brings up a map with your location marked. A notation at the bottom tells you how far away the nearest Sidecar is, and the app immediately asks you to enter where you are going. Once you do, the app lists a choice of rides, with photos of the drivers and their cars, descriptions of the cars, their ETA to your location and the fares. You can sort the list by driver ETA, recommended ride or price, and make your selection accordingly.
Unlike the other two, Sidecar lets you choose which driver and/or car you want to use. If you're curious, you can tap on one of the photos to see a larger photo of the car and driver as well as a statement by the driver, if they've added one -- one of my choices described himself as a "funk specialist," while another said he was collecting money for his school.
If you wish, you can also switch back to the map to see the locations of the nearest rides and click on the car icons to see what kind they are and who the driver is. Some of the choices might be shared rides, while others are solo.
Like the other apps, Sidecar shows you the car approaching on the map while you're waiting.
Sidecar lets drivers set their own fare for a ride, based on algorithms -- the driver who explained the process to me, for example, had established that she would charge 110% of whatever the service calculated as a base fare. For one ride that I tried, prices ranged from $11 for a 2010 Toyota Yaris, through $22 for a 2010 Lincoln town car, up to $34 for a 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid.
The map also shows the route the app suggests the driver take. (Drivers are free to use their own GPS app, too.) This can come in handy if you're in a strange city and are nervous about whether a stranger might take you out of your way -- the map gives you an idea of what to expect. In my case, I was going to a friend's house, a route I drive a lot, and I could see that the suggested route was unnecessarily circuitous. I just directed the driver to my preferred route, and we went that way.
When you get to your destination, you can add a tip if you like, by pressing a plus-sign button next to the fare. Like the others, Sidecar also lets you rate your ride, and your driver can rate you. If you like a driver, you can make them a Favorite, so they always appear at the top of your list (if they're working at the time, obviously) and you can find their car on the map.
Third-party apps for taxi services
The convenience of the ridesharing services -- the ability to order up a ride when you want one from wherever you are, rather than competing with others on a street corner or hoping someone will come to your fringe neighborhood -- has helped them take a big bite out of traditional drive-for-hire businesses like taxis and limos. In tech-obsessed San Francisco, for example, taxi rides are down 65% over the past 15 months.
As a result, established taxi companies have begun to fight back by making use of third-party apps that purport to offer the same kind of services that Uber, Lyft and Sidecar do. These apps don't access a dedicated fleet; rather, they offer an interface to existing taxi companies.
We took a look at two of these: Curb and Way2ride. (I reviewed Curb in San Francisco; Computerworld reviews editor Barbara Krasnoff reviewed Way2ride in New York City.) Both are very different, and while each has interesting features, neither offers the convenience or level of service provided by the new ridesharing companies. In fact, at the moment Way2ride is little more than an alternative payment system, although the company says it will allow you to order cabs from the app in the future.
Curb
Availability:60 cities/areas
Rates: Standard taxi fares (with occasional service fee of $1-$2)
I was hoping to be able to say that Curb is a valiant effort to bring the convenience of Uber, Sidecar and Lyft to traditional taxis, but unfortunately I can't. For whatever reason, I never managed to get a ride with Curb.
Curb does have a nicer splash screen than the three ridesharing apps, a sort of animated roadway that spells out the company name. You register a credit card (though, unlike the others, you have the option to pay cash for a ride if you want -- it's a regular taxi, after all). As with Uber, you can enter your credit card number by taking a picture of your card.
When you launch the app, it comes up with two options: I'm Ready To Go and Pick Me Up Later -- it's the only one of the apps that lets you schedule a ride in the future, handy if you're going to the airport at 5 a.m. Unfortunately, that option isn't yet available in San Francisco, so I wasn't able to try it out.
Clicking I'm Ready To Go brings up the familiar map with your location marked on it and the app's best guess at your address. One thing I can say for Curb, it was the most accurate at determining the proper address. There's a Pick Me Up Here button and an ETA for when your cab will arrive. Pressing Pick Me Up Here brings up a screen where you can set your destination and get a fare estimate. (Curb is noticeably slower than the other apps at coming up with that estimate, however.) At that point, you click Book Ride. So far, so good.
The problem comes when the app starts trying to find you a driver. You get a warning that you that you may be assessed a fee if you cancel the ride after a driver accepts it. That wasn't an issue, though, because I never got a driver to accept the ride. The screen displayed "assigning ride -- thank you for your patience" for five minutes, and then finally announced no rides were available. That happened all three times I tried to use it, including one occasion that, had a driver picked me up, would have gotten the cab downtown just in time for rush hour. (I thought that'd make me an enticing fare.)
I can't help wondering if the "availability" of rides is really a euphemism for the willingness of a driver to accept the assignment. If you try to use Curb from a busy neighborhood, there may be taxis close by, but they can probably get hailed easily enough on the street and don't need to respond to your call. And if you're in a quiet neighborhood, they're probably not nearby and don't want to drive for 10 or 15 minutes to pick up a fare. Whatever the reason, the Curb app is a fine front end to a not-very-functional service.
Ironically, the problem I had is the kind of issue with traditional taxis (at least, those in San Francisco) that has led to the popularity of Uber, Sidecar, and Lyft in the first place. If hailing a cab with an app doesn't work any better than calling for one on the phone, it's hard to see where apps like Curb are going to help save the taxi business.
Way2ride
Availability:NYC and Philadelphia
Rates: Standard taxi fares
New Yorkers and Philadelphians who get around their cities by hailing cabs may find themselves considering a new way to pay. Way2ride, an app associated with the Verifone point-of-sale tech system, allows taxi riders to pay for a ride without pulling out their wallet (and possibly leaving it on the seat). I tried out Way2ride using its Android app on a Moto X (2013) smartphone.
You register for the app by providing a name, password and at least one credit card. (You can provide more than one if, for example, you want to pay for some rides with a company card.)
Cabs using the system have a Way2ride button on the passenger touch video screen or will have a sticker pasted to the security shield that separates the driver and passenger compartments. To use the app, you hold your phone up to the video display, and the app confirms the ride. (If for some reason the connection doesn't work, you can enter the cab's check-in code into the app instead.)
Way2ride allows you to pre-select the percentage of the final fare that you would like to tip the driver, or you can choose it any time during or after the ride. You can also choose either to automatically pay as soon as the ride is over, or confirm the amount before the payment goes through.
The app tracks your receipts (a very useful feature for anyone who expenses their cab rides) and will email a copy if you want. And after the cab leaves, there is a button to call it back if you suddenly realize you've left something on the back seat.
One thing that Way2ride doesn't do is let you actually order a cab using the app. There is a button on the front page of the app that says, "I need a ride," but apparently the program is still in beta; riders who click on it are put on a waiting list.
It's nice to know that city cabs are trying to modernize their methods. However, for now, if you're somewhere in New York or Philadelphia and can't get a ride by sticking your hand out for a taxi, the alternatives are either a ridesharing service like Uber, Sidecar or Lyft -- or an old-fashioned phone call to a local car service.
-- Barbara Krasnoff
Bottom line
All in all, Sidecar's app was the one I ended up preferring. It's not as slick-looking as Uber's, but I appreciated getting a choice of drivers, knowing exactly what the fare would be in advance and seeing the route the app suggested. You can also see your ride history, which is handy for filling out expense reports.
Lyft was my second favorite, primarily because of the ability to designate home and work addresses for quick access -- other than that, there's little to differentiate it from Uber as far as the apps go.
Uber is the slickest app overall, with a slightly fewer number of choices presented in a clear, attractive package. Someone who wanted to truly "leave the driving to us" and not be bothered with details like route and tipping might prefer it for its lack of the sort of interactivity I appreciated in Sidecar.
And the third-party apps Well, if the current functionality of Curb (which wasn't able to find an available ride) and Way2ride (which doesn't yet allow you to request a cab) is anything to go by, the more traditional taxi companies have a way to go in order to complete -- technologically, anyway -- with the ridesharing services.