The Innovation of UBER - A Personal Driver at Your Service

Think about how many things have been created since the year 2007; how many innovations that didn’t make it onto the Com Tech TimeLine. Many of us are probably thinking about applications like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

But how many of us think about the app that changed our way of transportation? Uber.

Uber took the most simple method of transportation that’s been around for decades known as a Taxicab and turned it into something as innovative as an application. The Taxicab was created in 1897 by Gottlieb Daimler. It has been around so long, but the issue with taxis revolved around time, money, and availability. Uber took initiative by creating an application that solves those issues.

Have you ever been outside in the cold snow in the middle of a city after having had a few drinks trying to wave down a taxi, but every time one passes it is full? Then you end up waiting in the cold for 15 minutes until finally, one pulls up, then it ends up charging you an absurd amount for going 10 blocks down the street.

Uber makes it so easy that you can create an account, add a credit card and order a ride in no time. This was beneficial in countless ways:

1. You're able to see how far rides are before you order one so you can plan out when to call it
2. You can contact the driver if you have specific directions
3. You can split the fare with friends if you are riding with a group of people
4. If you put in your destination, a rough fare estimate is calculated for you

And these are just a few of the perks. Now that we know what Uber is and why it is so helpful, let's apply it to the theory of Rodgers Diffusion of Innovations (or ideas).  This theory explains to us why things grow and become popular at the rate they do. Rodger believes there is a simple bell curve of progression for every idea or technology that is created. There are five different categories: the pioneers/ innovators, the early adopters, the early majority, the late adopters, and the laggards.

The pioneers and innovators are the ones who loved the idea of the taxi but wanted to make it better. They took it to another level by making it easier for our generation to use rideshare through our Mobil devices that we live by. The early adopters are the ones who knew about taxi's but were very avid about new technology creation and found this to be an easier and faster process. The application was not very popular but there were promotions and cheap prices to get where you wanted in the big cities like New York, Boston, and San Francisco. Not until the word began to spread, and the more locations joined the trend did the early majority join in and the word was spread. Advertisements and coupons were everywhere for safe rides and promotions. This is where it became a tipping point because the younger generation caught on and it was used for kids that would go out drinking and needed a way to get home. The application took off and so many locations began to use it.

But there is also an issue with analyzing Uber using Rodgers Diffusion of Innovations (or ideas). Uber was a very controversial topic that set many people off the roof. As you may know, taxi drivers were heated. They were loosing so much business and this was killing their market because so many people in these big cities lived off making their money through taxi driving. There were even court cases and laws filed after it peaked. The taxi driver community was fighting against Uber in so many places that it began to get banned in many countries. All these law suites against Uber also gained some attention though, and late adopters were still feeding in by using the app in places it was available. Most of the issues were with places in Europe where it is no longer available, but New York is still a huge spot Uber is used.

Another issue Uber started to deal with was not making the registration for drivers more in-depth. Cases started happening where young adults were getting raped, killed or hurt when using the rideshare app alone. This caused another huge scandal for Uber and affected them tremendously.

Now we reach the laggards. The ones who have the app still, they know it can be dangerous but will use it on rare occasions if they are out drinking with a group of people. They aren't avid users and probably prefer a taxi but they have the application depending on the situation.

Uber is an application that made a positive and negative impact on our generation. It has hurt people due to its problems of safety but saved people from things like drinking and driving. All the major applications have had an impact on our generation a large amount. Uber might not be the perfect resemblance of Rodger's bell-curved timeline, but it truly caught on and spread as an innovation.