The whole Uber model is centered around cashless convenience. This makes it Tip-less as long as there's no tipping within the app as far as I'm concerned. I also imagine that the majority of riders don't tip based on the various discussions I've seen online regarding this.

Uber's App now allows you to tip. And now they are going to charge you per-minute if the driver has to wait beyond two minutes:

Uber adds the option to tip drivers, and you'll pay for making them wait - LA Times

That $5 cancelation fee is a scam too.

Yesterday I was in Noblesville IN and requested a ride to the airport (approx $40 ride).

The driver who accepted my request was (initially) 35 mins away, but the app quickly corrected that to 17 mins. After waiting about 5-6 minutes I checked the app again and he was still stated to be 17 mins away and not moving. So I called him - and just got his voicemail. With that I canceled him and needless to say got hit with a $5 fee.

When I re-requested the ride, a new driver accepted and was at my location within 5 minutes.

Uber is still so much better than a regular cab (which would have charged me more than $100 for that ride), but nickel & dime'ing me for 5 bucks like that annoys me somewhat.

I think Uber have relented to driver tipping within the app, because Lyft already do that and a lot of their drivers also work the Lyft app too.

I can see the two minute thing being problematic too. I've definitely missed that window in the past when the vehicle has ended up being on the opposite side of a busy urban street and I couldn't safely cross the road in that time.

Uber is falling apart, with a major leadership vacuum (the CEO has now resigned), major workplace harassment issues and driver tax status problems in several countries.

The next few months could be very interesting!

How to lose a lot of money, invest in Uber.

There valuation depends on doing away with the driver.

And given they're being sued by Google for stealing Google's work on driverless cars, their own driverless car efforts aren't exactly in great shape at this point.

Adding the option to tip, just took away the one competitive edge that I appreciated in Uber.

They have good customer service in my experience. If you send a brief complaint (even just a one or two-liner) they'll almost certainly refund.

Yes - you'll basically be buying your passenger rating.

The small silver lining is that the statement makes it sound like the change is US-only. I use Uber pretty much everywhere I travel.

At the Drivers expense?

Maybe. If Uber's f'ed up then it's between the company and the driver to sort out where the cost lies.

Haven't spotted a tipping option on the app here in Aus yet.

Its rolling out. Three cities to start. End of July before all of the US.

The announcement made it sound like it might be US only.