CAN’T DECIDE BETWEEN UBER OR LYFT? UP HAIL WILL HELP YOU OUT

on October 14, 2014 at 3:01 pm

This Article Orginally Appeared On Bezinga

We’ve all asked these questions before.

How much will the taxi cost? Can it fit all of us? Is there an Uber around? Up Hail has come around to solve all those questions.

Up Hail, which soft launched about two months ago, compares various pricing, promotions, vehicles and availability for your favorite ride-sharing apps. Co-founder Avi Wilensky explained how the service began.

“When Uber opened up their public API at the end of August, we thought it would be interesting to find out where and when surges would happen in NYC, and how it correlated with weather conditions,” Wilensky told Benzinga. “From there, we thought it would be useful to mash up the geographic coverage area of the two services, so users would know if they are available in their location.

“Next, we built a price comparison engine, Twitter accounts for users to track surges in their city, followed by ‘surge maps’ to overlay the multipliers in the neighborhoods where surge activity is occurring,” he said. Wilensky said new features will be added in response to what users are finding useful.

You can enter almost any metropolitan area, and Up Hail will give a side-by-side comparison of Uber and Lyft, the most popular ride-sharing apps available. It plans on rolling in other competing services into the platform very shortly.

Riders must access the Up Hail website for now, but more is on the way. Wilsenky said, “Native apps for Android and iOS are high priority on our product road map, and are slated for the end of the year.”