All of us that use Lyft or Uber have been frustrated with trying to awkwardly communicate to the driver which door you at when exiting an arena, only to have to walk a block to meet the car. Lyft is working to solve this and make their app even more convenient with an exact pickup option in their app. With this feature you can now be picked up or dropped off at specific spots within certain venues like an airport.
As Lyft puts it, “When you’re rushing to catch a flight or a concert opener, every second counts. That’s why we’ve updated our app to make it easier than ever to get picked up and dropped off — down to the exact terminal door or arena entrance. Now you can set your exact drop-off location, in addition to pickups, at select venues nationwide. Instead of having to call your driver and tell them to meet you at Door 4 of Terminal 2, you can just specify that in the destination field when you request a ride.”
The feature is live at more than 200 locations in the US with more being added daily. “Just last week at Outside Lands, passengers used this feature more than 3,000 times,” noted Lyft. “For the duration of the festival, riders could set precise pickup and drop-off points such as Main Gate, South Entrance, or the box office.”
Lyft says that the annoying texting between drivers and riders decreased by 25% since they began testing this feature in March.
Uber may also be testing precision pickup. “Uber in South Africa already does this,” commented Brandon van Reenen, Social Media Manager at iFix. “When you’re at the airport it says “Welcome to Cape Town”, with a dropdown of terminals and landmarks in the airport district, like hotels, car parkades etc.”