Upstart Ride Services Fail in South by Southwest Test
Drivers in a General Motors Co. brand Cadillac vehicle sit facing the Texas State Capitol building in Austin, Texas, U.S., on Friday, June 3, 2016. Steve Adler, Austin's mayor, thinks he can put his stamp on the city by burnishing its reputation as an exciting playground for experiments in urban transportation. One of his political priorities is to seek millions in federal funding to promote a so-called smart city plan based on autonomous buses, sensors that know which parking spaces are available and, yes, a culture of ridesharing.
Photographer: David Williams/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesStartups Fasten and RideAustin saw South by Southwest, the annual technology, film and media gathering in Austin, Texas, as their biggest test since they replaced Lyft and Uber as the city's predominant ride-hailing services last May.
Neither one got high marks on Saturday night. Drivers and passengers complained that the apps were down for an hour or two, just as partygoers were trying to move from one place to another on a rainy evening.
Fasten says that demand was 12 times the normal levels for Saturday night. In addition to general outages, some riders complained of very high surges in pricing and of being charged for cars that never arrived.
"Shows just how good Uber is," wrote Daniele Fiandaca on Twitter, after saying she was quoted $60 for a ten-minute ride on Saturday morning.
Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. abruptly stopped operating in Austin almost a year ago in protest of a law that required drivers to be fingerprinted. Several new companies stepped up to fill the void. Austin currently has seven ride-hailing apps operating there. Fasten and RideAustin have become the leaders, and Fasten in particular was looking at SXSW as a coming-out party of sorts as it attempts to raise a $20 million fundraising round and move into new markets. Its performance on Saturday couldn't have helped.
"It wasn't the greatest page in our history," said Kirill Evdakov, the company's chief executive officer. "Hopefully we can regain the trust." Evdakov said the company has added additional server capacity and shut off non-essential parts of the app to try to ensure reliable service. A representative for RideAustin didn't respond to an interview request.