Uber begins letting passengers schedule rides up to 30 days in advance

Today Uber announced a new feature called Scheduled Rides, enabling some users to (yup) schedule an Uber ride between 30 minutes and 30 days in advance.

The new feature, which launched this week in Seattle, will first be available for UberX only, but the company has promised (threatened?) that it’ll expand to other cities and for regular Uber customers. Uber have stated the prices will be the same, but you will be subject to surge pricing if that is in action at the time of your journey.

According to Tech Crunch, the roll-out in Seattle, Washington will be followed by other leading business travel cities. If you fire up the 13CABS app and tap Quick Booking you can see a real-time map of nearby taxis, estimate fares, rate your journey and pay via the app. You can also book taxis in advance, receiving an alert as your taxi approaches.

Less than a month after Lyft debuted Scheduled Rides, rival Uber is launching its own version of the service-with a twist. Right now, the service is only available on UberX, the lowest-cost version in which passengers ride in the personal vehicles of Uber drivers.

“They sleep better knowing their Uber ride is arranged”, Fallows said.

Uber is keeping up with the competition by adding a feature that allows you to schedule rides ahead of time. In September, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said that the company aims to make its ride-request fulfillment so dependable that scheduled trips would not be necessary. Users will receive notifications well in advance.

“We may know a driver who now has a passenger in the auto is headed to drop them off nearby your house or pickup location”, Fallows said.

On the seeming about-face on the matter of scheduled rides? If the customer decides to cancel the scheduled ride, there will be no penalties. If you miss your “arrival time”, Uber will give you $2 off your next uberPOOL ride.