CIGAR CIGAR - FINE Magazine

UBER PANACHE Luxury Lifestyle LivingUber PanacheSan Diego hails the arrival of this luxury cab service.By Luke TravisHailing a taxi on the weekend can be a bit like tryingto catch a sardine with your hand. In the later shadesof evening, it’s a race to find a ride before the streetsare abandoned. Even calling for a taxi sometimes causes mixups that leave commuters stranded in the streets for hours. Andonce you get that cab, you begin to feel packed in like a sardineyourself.Thanks be to Uber, a company at the forefront of the luxurytransport service industry since 2010 and poised to make aneven bigger splash going forward. Conceived and employedfirst on the streets of San Francisco, Uber has extended itsreach far beyond California to the corners of the globe, servingthe residents of 20 cities in four different countries. And itsrecent arrival in San Diego is nothing short of a blessing.Uber prides itself on providing a service that is distinct andarguably superior to that of other cab services. Taylor Monaco,Uber’s San Diego community manager, does not demurewhen describing the company’s innovative technologicalimplementations.“Uber is always on demand,” she said. “Our cars arrive 5 to10 minutes after the client has requested a vehicle, and the usercan see, in real time, the location of the driver as they arrive.”All of this, of course, is possible through Uber’s smartphoneapp, which has done much to revolutionize the way theindustry works. Users no longer have to do the equivalent oflaying down in front of a taxi cab to make it stop, nor mustthey wonder how long a call-in dispatch will take to get to theirarea. They need only access an application on their phones,request a ride and watch the blue dot on their screen movecloser and closer.Even the need for cash exchange has been eliminated bythe application. “Clients upload their credit card informationduring the signup process, so all of the billing is doneelectronically,” Monaco explained. “No cash required.”And don’t expect your average yellow cab with limited legroom and suspect odors. With Uber, you are greeted curbsideby a professional driver in a sleek black car or SUV. It’s likehaving your own private driver.In addition, Uber has set up a mechanism for its clientsto evaluate drivers and send feedback to the companyadministration. “The feedback loop ensures that Uber clientsare getting the highest quality drivers, as we remove the lowestquality drivers from our system,” Monaco said. Riders ratedrivers via a system of one to five stars, and can also leaveshort descriptions of their experience on the site, so any and allepisodes are well-catalogued and well-recorded.Despite all these extra services, Uber is still reasonably priced.“In San Diego, Uber is typically about 1.4-times standard cabfare, which is including tip,” Monaco said. “The convenienceand overall luxury are worth the small price difference.”There is a great school of philosophers who believe thatthe definition of “cool” is nothing more than “bringingpanache to the otherwise mundane.” If this is true, then Ubertransportation service is among the coolest of all taxi cabcompanies worldwide.And that, irregardless of all other factors, should be enoughincentive to at least give it a try.48 FINEsd.com | facebook.com/FINEmagazines