The idea is to make Uber Pool rides as fast and direct as possible. That means setting pickup points past a busy traffic light on the righthand side of the road to make things less stressful for drivers, avoiding bus lanes and less zig-zagging along the way. More than that, the app will analyze the route along the way (every few seconds, apparently) and recalculate the drop-off point to maximize efficiency versus setting a static destination when you get in the car.

Uber says that all of this has resulted in routes that have 20 percent fewer turns, and, as a result, are faster, saving you time and money. This makes a lot of sense for a place like Manhattan, and maybe we could see some of these additions trickle down to smaller cities as well.

Is it as convenient as getting picked up at your front door and being delivered in front of your destination? No, but unless you're extremely lucky, subways and bus stops don't really work that way either. And hey, it's not like walking is unhealthy or anything.

This post was updated with added clarification for what's new for UberPool in NYC and what was in testing.