Until now Uber customers who would schedule a ride, would be given a uber fare estimate, which could change on the day of the ride. So now, no more shocks for customers when they get final bill at the end of their ride.
Surge Pricing: When Uber customers request a ride they also see an estimated price of the ride. Besides the price, customers will see a multiplier, in most cases is it x1, which means the price is as it is presented. However, sometimes the multiplier is x1.3 or x 2.0 or even x3.5 which means that the final price must be multiplied by the number next to it. The higher the multiplier, the higher the demand saturation is to the supply of drivers.
Scheduling Rides: In the past, the system stored the requests in the memory and then released them some minutes before the ride would take place. Drivers treated the request as a standard request, which means all the same rules applied. Uber stated that their rates were dependent on the time of pickup, which was thought to be sensible and reasonable. The customer understands that rates are dynamic and can change during the day. This way the customer has no real idea what this ride will cost until the moment of the pickup.
The new system comes after a year of guaranteeing ride fares since many customers canceled rides after finding out that the fare was not set at the time of the request but would fluctuate on the time of pickup. The whole concept of scheduling a ride was to assure a pre-ordered ride. The newly upgraded schedule locks in the price and now customers will not be surprised by surge prices or other changes but will have an exact fare rate presented to them at the time of the request.