by Donald Wood
Last updated: 3:00 PM ET, Tue January 5, 2016
Photo courtesy of Thinkstock
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick took to Twitter Sunday to defend the ride-hailing service after receiving criticism about the effectiveness of the arrival estimate times.
The debate surrounding Uber's cars being later than the estimated time shown in the company's app began earlier that day when investor Jason Calacanis commented on a column written by David Segal of the New York Times.
In the article, Segal complained about several issues he had with Uber, but most notably that the service constantly is incorrect regarding the arrival time. Segal-speaking as The Haggler-stated:
"The Haggler's second Uber complaint is that when he first opens the Uber app, it invariably shows a swarm of nearby cars and estimated arrival times of one, two or possibly three minutes. But once a car is actually ordered, the estimated time instantly doubles or triples. That two-minute estimate becomes six minutes."
As an Uber investor, Calacanis responded on Twitter to the column:
Many people were quick to disagree with Calacanis, suggesting that the wrong arrival time estimates could become enough of an annoyance to users that it would force them to look at other competitively priced options.
To help explain the process of how the arrival estimates are calculated and some of the reasons behind the time changes, Kalanick released a series of tweets directed at Calacanis and the skeptics:
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