Patent ID: 11935083
Assignee: LYFT, INC.
Field: IT methods for management (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A method comprising:
receiving, by one or more processing devices of one or more servers associated with a transportation matching system and from a passenger computing device, a transportation request indicating a pickup location;
identifying, by the one or more processing devices, a first geographic zone and a second geographic zone associated with the pickup location;
determining, by the one or more processing devices based on the pickup location, that the first geographic zone is closer to the pickup location than the second geographic zone;
based on determining that the first geographic zone is closer to the pickup location, generating, by the one or more processing devices, a surge gradient by weighting a surge price associated with the first geographic zone more than a surge price associated with the second geographic zone within a distance-weighted surge gradient;
determining, by the one or more processing devices, a surge pricing multiplier for the pickup location based on the surge gradient between the first geographic zone and the second geographic zone;
monitoring, by the one or more processing devices of the one or more servers, interactions with a plurality of passenger computing devices and a plurality of driver computing devices to determine a number of transportation requests corresponding to the plurality of passenger computing devices and a number of available driver computing devices;
updating, by the one or more processing devices, the surge pricing multiplier for the pickup location based on the surge gradient between the first geographic zone and the second geographic zone, the number of transportation requests, and the number of available driver computing devices;
transmitting, by the one or more processing devices for display on a graphical user interface of one or more driver computing devices associated with the transportation matching system, the transportation request and an indication of the updated surge pricing multiplier associated with the transportation request;
receiving, by the one or more processing devices from a first driver computing device associated with a first driver, an acceptance of the transportation request; and
transmitting, by the one or more processing devices to the first driver computing device, navigational data to direct the first driver to the pickup location to fulfill the transportation request.