# Uber new gadget 'Beacon' to find your Uber



## Jo3030 (Jan 2, 2016)

*Meet Beacon, Uber's colorful new gadget to help prevent those awkward car mixups*

*Ride-sharing giant's first foray into hardware*

LINK:
*http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/15/13956146/uber-beacon-color-device-gadget-wrong-car-mixups*


We've all been there: you land at an airport, book an Uber to your hotel, only to find 20 identical black Honda CR-Vs waiting when you get outside. Which one is yours? Or it's late, you're leaving the club with a buzz, and inadvertently leap into back of the wrong Toyota Camry. Sure, you could check for the right license plate number, but who has time for that nonsense? What you really need is a device you control to guide you into the right backseat. Meet Beacon, Uber's first foray into hardware.

The Beacon is essentially a glowing, plastic Uber logo that drivers can affix to the inside of their windshields. It's Bluetooth-enabled, so after a driver accepts your ride request, a prompt will appear in your app that asks you to choose a specific color. If you choose green, the driver's Beacon will glow green. Choose magenta, it will glow magenta. Either way, when he arrives at your destination, you'll know it, no guesswork needed.

"You can match the license plate, you can match the make and model," Nikhil Goel, product lead on the Beacon project, told me. "But this is kind of another tool we're giving you to personalize your ride."

I got to play with a Beacon yesterday at Uber's New York City headquarters. Goel showed me how moving the slider in the app to select the right color instantly corresponded to the color of the Beacon. The effect was very cool, but it remains to be seen how well the color projects in darkness and bad weather conditions.

Beacon is the offshoot of Spot, a product pilot launched by Uber in Seattle almost a year ago. In an effort to eliminate awkward vehicle mixups, Uber provided its Seattle drivers with long, thin LED lights to attach to the inside of their windshields. Riders could control the color of the device so they could better identify their drivers. Uber found that Spot reduced the need for riders and drivers to contact one another and lowered cancellation rates in tricky pickup locations. The positive feedback convinced Uber to take it to the next level.

"Knowing that Spot was well-received in Seattle, we set out to design new and improved hardware," said John Badalamenti, senior design lead at Uber. "We knew we had to design this to be seen at night, being very sensitive to the installation process, etc. Really the goal was to develop something that we could scale."

That means the Beacon had to be inexpensive enough to mass-produce that Uber could afford to distribute them to all 1.5 million drivers worldwide without breaking the bank. (Although, given Uber's $68 billion valuation, it's hard to see how that could happen.) But it also needed to look familiar, which was why Uber designed the Beacon to look like its new logo.

"If you're familiar with the environment in the car, it's a very sensitive situation," Badalamenti said. "This is an environment where subtle design detail gets lost and bold design really wins."

Uber considered every design detail. That included ensuring that the Beacon wasn't flush with the windshield, but instead floated a few centimeters away from the glass so drivers could see the reflection of the color their rider picked. The Beacon's color can also be customized to correspond with certain events, like Pride Week or a sports victory. The device is wireless, and can operate for up to 20 hours on one charge.

To start out, Uber will be distributing its new Beacon gadgets to drivers in five cities: Miami, Nashville, Denver, Belfast, and Newcastle. Drivers will be invited to secret community meetings, where they will receive their Beacons at no cost, charging equipment included. The devices will be rolled out to more cities throughout 2017, with the goal of making them "ubiquitous" by the end of the year, Goel said.









The Beacon may look a little familiar to those who follow closely the ride-sharing industry. That's because Lyft recently unveiled its own candy-colored device called the Amp. The LED device, which attaches magnetically to the dashboard, is designed to both prevent those awkward car mix-ups with passengers and replace the company's iconic furry pink mustache logo.

Unlike the Beacon, the Amp has two LED displays, one facing out and the other facing inside the car. Messages can be displayed on either screen, such as "Welcome [your name here]." Surprisingly, Uber decided to go with a device that infringes less on your privacy.

Both companies anticipate rolling out their devices in a limited number of cities before New Year's Eve, when the confluence of ride-sharing and drunk passengers is at its peak. Given the number of devices ride-sharing drivers have attached to their dashboards these days, the idea of taking some of that screen-glow and projecting out into the real world seems like a fair deal.


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## TBone (Jan 19, 2015)

I won't use it but I wonder how much they will charge the drivers?


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

What the hell's so hard about looking at a license plate, especially when you can track the car in the app ? 

This idea is as absurd as Lyfts pink mustache logo.

Entitled pax ftl.


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## Brooklyn (Jul 29, 2014)

I remember Uber discussing this... what happens when people just screenshot the colors and just pretend they're the right customers?


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

uberdriverfornow said:


> What the hell's so hard about looking at a license plate?


 You keep your plates on your car while driving Uber?


> This idea is as absurd as Lyfts pink mustache logo.


? You have something against marketing (that works)?
At worst, this is harmless - 
at best it can be helpful (like during pick-ups at sporting events/concerts).

My only giggle is that if a pax is too drunk to enter a correct pick-up location or destination in the app, it's hard to imagine them being able to use this function.


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## DocT (Jul 16, 2015)

Oh man, how embarrassing. I saw the title and thought it said "Bacon" and clicked it. A drunk can smell bacon and have the scent lead them to their Uber car.


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## Brooklyn (Jul 29, 2014)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> You keep your plates on your car while driving Uber?
> 
> ? You have something against marketing (that works)?
> At worst, this is harmless -
> ...


You drive without plates or something? Lol cops don't say anything?


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## Dallas007 (May 18, 2016)

...and at the airport when there are 3 green and 3 blues ... that should clear up any confusion


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

Dallas007 said:


> ...and at the airport when there are 3 green and 3 blues ... that should clear up any confusion


You missed how it works: the color control is in the hands of the RIDER... if they see three reds or three blues, they can change the color from THEIR phone and watch for the change on the driver's car.


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## Dallas007 (May 18, 2016)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> You missed how it works


... didn't realize they could change it on the fly; but at any rate I agree with others on here; just look at the car and license plate 
More of a marketing / branding tool than a 'find the right car tool'


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

Dallas007 said:


> I agree with others on here; just look at the car and license plate '


Agree completely (if you only pick-up sober business paxs who can distinguish one white Honda Civic from another and request rides only during daylight hours in good weather when the license plate is not covered in mud and snow).


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

I can see it being helpful in many situations, but I can also see it hurting drivers that don't have it. 

Imagine Snowflake Suzi eagerly looking forward to matching her fuscia Uber Beacon...and you don't have one. Suzi will be "sad." Suzi will 1-star you for making her "sad."

And of course, it's not your fault at all. Uber is only giving these things out to selected drivers. 

So if you don't have one, obviously Uber doesn't consider you worthy -- why should Snowflake Suzi give you a good rating?


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

JimKE said:


> -- why should Snowflake Suzi give you a good rating?


lol... I suspect that not having Suzy will downrate you for 15 other things before she considers your not having a beacon - like the color of your car or the weather.


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## Trebor (Apr 22, 2015)

They won't "charge" drivers, but I am betting we will have to down a deposit and work to pay off the deposit. Then our next pro tip will be "Partners without the beacon have lower ratings than those who do."


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## Baron VonStudley (Jun 20, 2014)

They will be able to match the color of their puke to the beacon while in ride. It will assure top quality service experiences


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## Lynette (Jun 26, 2016)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> You missed how it works: the color control is in the hands of the RIDER... if they see three reds or three blues, they can change the color from THEIR phone and watch for the change on the driver's car.


These people act like they don't know the difference between pool, x, select, black. They don't need anything else to think about. Money should be invested in paying their drivers more. Fix this raggedy app and invest in a real live customer service team instead of responding with robots.


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

Uber and Lyft waste a tremendous amount of money just copying each other. The beacon is just copying the lyft thing -- forgot what it's called -- that does the same color-match thing.


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## JimS (Aug 18, 2015)

uberdriverfornow said:


> What the hell's so hard about looking at a license plate, especially when you can track the car in the app ?
> 
> This idea is as absurd as Lyfts pink mustache logo.
> 
> Entitled pax ftl.


Most states don't have a front license plate, and don't ever step behind the car to look.



JimKE said:


> Uber and Lyft waste a tremendous amount of money just copying each other. The beacon is just copying the lyft thing -- forgot what it's called -- that does the same color-match thing.


LOL - Are you so lazy, you can't look in the article and see that it's called AMP?


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## ubershiza (Jan 19, 2015)

DocT said:


> Oh man, how embarrassing. I saw the title and thought it said "Bacon" and clicked it. A drunk can smell bacon and have the scent lead them to their Uber car.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

JimS said:


> Most states don't have a front license plate


It says here on a quick search that only 19 don't require a front license plate. But that doesn't mean that the dmv of those states don't issue two license plates which can bot be put on the car.

19 states out of 50 doesn't qualify as "most".

https://www.google.com/search?q=whi...hich+states+do+not+have+a+front+license+plate


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

This is actually a really neat idea that could really really help. I would take it a step further and have it on the app with a shape/color combo.

So instead of crusing outside the Citrus bowl looking for a drunk concert goer i'm now looking for someone flashing a green square at me. Much easier to figure out.

But personally i'd rather just roll by in a taxi and get the first guy who flags me down that can stand up straight...


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## leosc (Sep 27, 2014)

Jo3030 said:


> *Meet Beacon, Uber's colorful new gadget to help prevent those awkward car mixups*
> 
> *Ride-sharing giant's first foray into hardware*
> 
> ...


wow @@


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

It'll be a cold day in hell before I put one of these silly things in my car.


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## Tim In Cleveland (Jul 28, 2014)

uberdriverfornow said:


> It'll be a cold day in hell before I put one of these silly things in my car.


 and I'm just cringing at the thought of paying money for it.


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## Fuzzyelvis (Dec 7, 2014)

So


Michael - Cleveland said:


> You missed how it works: the color control is in the hands of the RIDER... if they see three reds or three blues, they can change the color from THEIR phone and watch for the change on the driver's car.


 at the bars at 2 am all the users will have lights changing colors every 2 seconds? Lol


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## Fuzzyelvis (Dec 7, 2014)

uberdriverfornow said:


> It'll be a cold day in hell before I put one of these silly things in my car.


I have enough shit plugged in already. And I'm not about to buy batteries.


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## scoobydoobydoo (Jan 3, 2016)

I saw a Beacon today and a video of how to install it. Uber actually had to make an install video. It is large and the light module mounts to the inside of the windshield with two sided tape.


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