# What determines a surge area?



## robertc21 (Jun 18, 2015)

What determines a surge area? Does anyone think uber will raise rates once they get fully established?


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## Ziggy (Feb 27, 2015)

robertc21 said:


> What determines a surge area?


surge area is supposed to be automatically determined based on number of riders & number of available drivers in a certain area ... 
Demand > Supply = Surge

However, we've seen cases where surge pops on the map even though none of the dozen plus drivers working that area get a trip. I'm quite sure that Uber staff are able to manually manipulate surge


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## ARIV005 (Mar 4, 2015)

The surge is only there to keep you moving around... You'll see when you chase it, it disappears, then reappears when you've left the area.


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## LAuberX (Jun 3, 2014)

nobody knows for sure. Uber lies so what ever they say is meaningless anyway.

I have seen "NO UBERX AVAILABLE" in an area for over an hour with no surge.... and sat in the same area during a 1.7X surge with NO PINGS

It ain't as simple as supply vs. demand


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## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

robertc21 said:


> What determines a surge area? Does anyone think uber will raise rates once they get fully established?


I suspect it's the average demand in a given area for a given time of day versus the number of cars required to meet that demand, on the average, and so i the heat map color intensity, or surge, reflects corresponding inadequate supply. One thing is certain, just because an area is colored, or even if there is a surge, there is no assurance that you will even get a ping.


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## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

ARIV005 said:


> The surge is only there to keep you moving around... You'll see when you chase it, it disappears, then reappears when you've left the area.


That's just about the size of it. I'll move to a colored area only if I'm a couple blocks away, but no farther than that. ON the other hand, if there are pings there, and no one is there, I should theoretically get the ping being the closest car. So, no point in chasing the heat map.


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## GooberX (May 13, 2015)

Ziggy said:


> surge area is supposed to be automatically determined based on number of riders & number of available drivers in a certain area ...
> Demand > Supply = Surge
> 
> However, we've seen cases where surge pops on the map even though none of the dozen plus drivers working that area get a trip. I'm quite sure that Uber staff are able to manually manipulate surge


You guys just kill me.

I'm not an Uber apologist, and I think they have issues, but they don't sit there and play with the surge.

The reason why there's a surge when there are drivers in the area is simple:
12 drivers in area - 6 potential riders = no surge
12 drivers - 18 potential riders (6 riders plus 12 drivers looking at rider apps) = surge, but not many rides
12 drivers - 24 potential riders ( 2 riders plus 12 drivers w rider apps on plus 12 offline drivers looking at app waiting for surge) = surge but NO rides

There are thousands of drivers off line moving their pin in the rider app so they can check the different areas as they try and see where they'll go.

These drivers are seen by the computer system as potential rides and the algorithm changes and causes a surge.

If all of us open our rider app and put the pin in Santa Monica at the same time, the surge will spike.

Uber does change the parameters of the software, but they don't micromanage it to **** with you.

But just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

Uber on!


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## robertc21 (Jun 18, 2015)

Great info. I just know that i been drive ig in hudson county weekdays from 6:30 till 11:00 and surge was always on till 9:30. The past two weeks there has been almost no surge. Just wondering what happen


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## Like...are you my uber? (Jun 11, 2015)

ARIV005 said:


> The surge is only there to keep you moving around... You'll see when you chase it, it disappears, then reappears when you've left the area.


I totally agree, it is now primarily just a method to keep cars circulating. However, it used to be a supply vs. demand algorithm, but that seems to have changed.


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## PHXTE (Jun 23, 2015)

Like...are you my uber? said:


> I totally agree, it is now primarily just a method to keep cars circulating. However, it used to be a supply vs. demand algorithm, but that seems to have changed.


I agree with this. Here in PHX, I often see them in the nasty end of town where nobody wants to go. I can't imagine many people from an area that poor are hailing Uber, so I imagine it's just a ploy to keep cars near there.


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