Uber In New York City Gets Ride Scheduling

Uber is great if you need to catch a ride somewhere, but lacks when you have to catch a ride at a specific time — if no drivers are close by, you'll be forced to wait however long until a driver swings by. To help deal with that issue comes a scheduled rides feature for those located in New York City. With it, you can schedule a ride ahead of time to ensure there's a car ready to pick you up right when you need it. This is part of the feature announced in June, which already went live in Seattle and many other places.

Since its announcement, the feature has rolled out in many cities throughout the US and around the world, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington DC, Boston, Las Vegas, London, Melbourne, Ho Chi Minh City, and Honolulu. You can see the full list (as of this date, and no doubt subject to additions in the future) below:

If you live in NYC or any of the other supported cities, you can use the Uber app to schedule a ride for up to 30 days in the future, or as little as 15 minutes ahead of time. So, for example, if your train or plane is going to get to its destination at an odd time, you can schedule to make sure someone is there to pick you up. The same goes for having rides to, for example, getting to a scheduled doctors appointment or a big event.

The price is the same as usual, and you'll see an estimated fare — however, keep in mind that surge pricing could come into effect at that time, in which case you'll have to pay that boosted rate. As well, Uber does not guarantee that you'll get a ride at the scheduled time, though it says instances in which a driver isn't available are rare and notifications will be sent immediately.

SOURCE: Uber