"Oh my God. Wow": Uber CEO shocked at high price of quick ride
Taking an Uber isn’t cheap, and the high price of a short ride even had the company’s CEO stunned.
Steven Levy, an editor at tech and culture magazine Wired, recently sat down with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi for a one-on-one interview, where he expressed shock over the price of a ride.
On Levy’s way to meet Khosrowshahi, he took a 2.95-mile (4.7 km) Uber ride from his New York City apartment to the West Side to meet Khosrowshahi at an Uber product event.
The trip cost him US $51.69 (C $69.04), which is pretty pricey for a short drive.
“The ride-hailing company’s charges have been higher in recent years and fluctuate in any case, but that was nuts,” wrote Levy.
When Levy sat down with Khosrowshahi, he asked the CEO how much he thought the 2.95-mile ride cost.
Khosrowshahi guessed $20.
“Fifty dollars,” Levy corrected him.
The Uber CEO was left stunned. “Oh my God. Wow,” he replied.
Levy said the higher price popped up after his second attempt to book a ride. Five minutes earlier, the ride was just $20.
Khosrowshahi said this was due to surge pricing, but Levy said that just “makes no sense.”
Levy explained it was “10 am on a sunny weekday, and it’s not like the president’s in town.” He said that, in general, Uber trips are costing more and asked the CEO if he worries that he will lose ridership because of higher prices.
Khosrowshahi said inflation was a driving factor behind the higher prices and said that because a majority of the fare goes to the driver, “earnings paper week for our drivers are up 40, 50 percent over the past four years.”
Wired highlighted that some reports indicate Uber’s fares have soared four times faster than the rate of inflation.
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