Uber riders in some parts of the US and India will be need to pay an 'upfront fare' and they will be allowed to see how much they will have pay for a ride, the company said on its blog. Uber added that it will calculate the fare factoring in expected travel time, distance, traffic, surge and tolls where applicable for the fare. Currently, Uber calculates the fare at the end of the ride. "Knowing how much a ride will cost in advance is clearly something riders appreciate: today uberPOOL accounts for over 20% of all rides globally. And we now want more riders globally to benefit from this feature," the company added in its blog. With the new version of the app, the lightning-bolt surge pricing icon on Uber will likely go away. A report by the Press Trust of India said that Uber has been testing upfront fares in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. Uber said that it has been slowly introducing upfront fares for regular uberX trips in cities across the US and India since April. "To date, hundreds of thousands of riders have experienced upfront fares as part of this rollout," it added. Surge pricing: The PTI report also points out that the move Uber would probably help the company address criticism that it has received over surge pricing in many states. Earlier this month, Uber suspended surge pricing in Karnataka in return for which the government would not impound the company’s cabs. Uber’s move comes on the heels of it capping fares at rates fixed…
