Uber has a simple message for customers looking to avoid severe price hikes on its car service this New Year's Eve: Just wait it out for a couple of hours.
"If you are at a party at 1 a.m. and you'd like to get home economically, like with a relatively inexpensive ride, wait til three. If you can wait til three, it's gonna go well," Travis Kalanick, cofounder and CEO of Uber, said in a video released Sunday night explaining the company's New Year's Eve pricing. "If you absolutely need a ride between 1 and 3 a.m., Uber will be very reliable, but it will be a pricey ride and you just have to expect that."
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The video is part of Uber's effort to prepare customers for the inevitable New Year's price increase, or "surge pricing," as the company refers to it. When demand for rides outstrips the supply of cars, the rate shoots up, and at peak times on New Year's, the demand is particularly high. Some have criticized this tactic as price gouging, but Kalanick has repeatedly defended it as an effective way to get drivers on the road when they're most needed.
In addition to the video, Uber published a blog post Monday explaining how surge pricing works and offering a chart that breaks down the time periods when prices are highest:

The company declined to estimate how much prices might increase during these peak periods, but one report last week suggested that prices might be as much as eight times the normal rate in New York City on New Year's, based on a message sent to Uber cab drivers.
Uber introduced surge pricing in late 2011. The company released a similar explainer on prices shortly before New Year's Eve last year, but it didn't stop customers from complaining about the price hikes anyway.
Image: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty