To move forward, sometimes you have to go back to the beginning. For Ryan, Senior Product Manager for pickups and dropoffs, that meant rethinking how you and your driver find each other.
Ryan’s role at Uber is to help make sure pickups and dropoffs are as smooth as possible for both riders and drivers. Given his own experiences, Ryan knew that a not-so-great pickup could affect the way you feel about the ride.
“I’m really passionate about live music and go to a lot of concerts,” says Ryan. “When you try to leave a crowded event with Uber, the pickup can be tricky, because it wasn’t very easy for the driver and the rider to communicate. So we set out to improve the pickup experience with Pickup Messages.”
It was these concert experiences that inspired Ryan to help take some of the stress out of a pickup and help drivers spot riders in a better way.
“When we talked with drivers, it was clear they felt better when riders gave them a tip on how to find them,” he says. “With Pickup Messages, you can just tap to send a message like ‘I’ll be right there’ or type something custom to help the driver spot you better. And for the driver, they can choose to hear your message read aloud from the app so they can get the message without having to take their eyes off the road.”
To move Uber forward, employees like Ryan draw from their personal experiences and those of others to help make your ride a little easier. With millions of pickups happening every day, improving the experience can have a huge impact for everyone who rides or drives with Uber.
Posted by Uber
Get a ride when you need one
Start earning in your city
Get a ride when you need one
Start earning in your city
Related articles
Most popular
Making Uber’s ExperimentEvaluation Engine 100x Faster
Genie: Uber’s Gen AI On-Call Copilot
Open Source and In-House: How Uber Optimizes LLM Training
Horacio’s story: gaining mobility independence through innovative transportation solutions
Products
Company