…but I’m not willing to download an app until I already know their rates. Is it possible for me to accomplish this? Assume that I don’t have any friends who could go on the app and look it up for me.
A “no” will be sufficient if it isn’t possible. I’m not interested in defending my position of not wanting an app until I’ve decided to use it.
Of course, if the answer is “yes,” I’d greatly appreciate instruction in how to accomplish it.
TIA
The cost varies from day to day, time to time, so I doubt you’d be able to get anything exact without using the app.
What @Telemark said. Uber (and, I assume, Lyft) base their pricing on demand levels – so, for example, the same trip will tend to cost more at times of higher demand (e.g., rush hour, after a concert or sporting event ends, etc.) As far as I know, their rates aren’t published (at least, not by them themselves), so unless a third-party is maintaining a site where people are entering what they paid for trips, such information probably isn’t available without actually looking at their app(s).
There is not a rate schedule like there is with taxis. The rate is based on a combination of current demand and distance. You can get a rate for a specific ride at a specific time on Uber’s web site but you have to create an account to do it. You don’t have to download an app to do this, but if you don’t want an app maybe you don’t want an account either.
Both of those sites have fine print disclaimers and in my experience with both the high demand surcharges (which are likely to be when you’d be able to find ride shares) can be hefty. Count on the estimators at your own peril.
Each app works only with a credit card on file.
I just went to the Uber website and put in my home address and a restaurant downtown (like a mile away), then did the same from the Uber app on my phone.
They give me exactly the same price. Honestly, it would be weird if they didn’t. Why built some totally different mechanism for estimating rides when you could just hook the website up to the same service that prices rides for the app? Just to get people mad that you give them different prices later?
< grumble>
nm
What exactly are you objecting to here? Ridesharing is absolutely a thing and even has a definition in the Miriam Webster dictionary, which also says it was first used in 1942.