Unboxing the Lyft Amp

The Lyft Amp is a cool light-up beacon that Lyft gives to drivers in qualifying cities can get after you’ve given 250 rides. It replaces the front trade dress sticker and makes it easier for passengers to spot your car when you’re doing a pickup. I recently received my Amp beacon, so I made a quick unboxing video to show you what it looks like and how it works.

Check out the video, then read the transcript below if you prefer to read.

Opening the Lyft Amp box and reading the instructions

Here is the box that it comes in. Just a simple cardboard box. You can see that right there it says, “Hello” on one side. What does it say on this side? It says, “#Amp It Up”. Then, on this side, it says, “Lyft amp”. Then, right here on the front, there’s a little picture of the amp and then also some lines, I guess, coming out saying how awesome it is.

Let’s open it and see what it looks like. Right here, on the front, you can see that it comes with, it looks like a little instruction card that says, “Lyft”. Then, also a Lyft amp logo right here. Let’s go ahead and take a look at the instruction card. Right here, it says, “Important installation instructions inside for Lyft”. Then, you know, Lyft always seems to have really great packaging. I’m always really impressed with their packaging. In this case, it’s no different. I’ll give you guys a quick little sneak preview of the actual amp right here. We’ll go ahead and look at that in just a second. I want to go through the instructions first, explain what this thing is.

Basically, this has instructions right here that says, “How to use your Lyft amp. How to get it all set up.” It talks about powering on. “Turn on the amp by pressing the power button on the back”, which I’ll show you. The battery action lasts up to eight hours on the amp, which is great because it’s a full night of driving. Then, to pair it, you actually open the Lyft app, follow the on-screen instructions to pair the amp with your phone. Pretty simple.

How to install the Amp on your dash

Then it also has actual physical installation instructions. You guys know that this amp goes on your dashboard in your car. In the past, Lyft has actually had glow ‘staches, which we’ve done an unboxing video of, and actual physical mustaches. This Lyft amp replaces all of that, that has been in the past. Our most recent video, we did an unboxing of the Lyft glow ‘stache for Lyft swag. Now, we’re doing this one for the new amp. It basically just tells you place it on your dashboard.

On the back, it says right here, “Lyft amp”. Without further ado, let’s check out the amp and see what it looks like. Right here, you can see that it actually is pretty nice. I’m pretty impressed so far. Pretty simple. It looks like a half cylinder. It looks like imagine if they cut a cylinder right in half. It feels not too heavy. It maybe about a quarter, a third of a pound. It says, “Lyft” right here in their new logo. Obviously, I still have all the plastic on and everything. You can see that it’s pretty solid material, made of plastic, right there. I’m assuming …

Oh, I just hit the on button, so let’s see what happens. This is the first time I’ve turned it on, so we’ll see what happens. It looks like it’s cycling through the Lyft and showing a bunch of different colors. A lot of purples and blues. Actually, it’s pretty cool. I’m pretty impressed. I didn’t realize that it was this vibrant and this colorful. You can actually see that these are all LEDs right in here, if I hold it up really close. There, you guys can get a really good shot of what it looks like. Let me take of the plastic, too, so you can see. Oh, man. That always feels good when you take off the plastic, right. Hopefully, the glare is not too bad. You guys can see the lights in it and all the little LEDs and everything that it’s cycling through. Wow. It’s actually really pretty. A really cool sheen off the top. I almost don’t want to touch it because of my dirty finger prints, but we’ll see what happens.

Pretty solid material. It seems like it’s pretty durable. Like I said, it’s not too heavy, but also not too light. This is actually pretty cool on the back, because it’s cycling a message right now. The message is super clear. I heard that I can do this and I’m actually pretty impressed right now. Right now it says, “Open the Lyft app.” I’m assuming that it wants you to open the Lyft app, so that you can go ahead and pair this device with your Lyft app.

What a passenger sees when they request a ride

How this thing actually works is that when a passenger requests a ride, they select that color that they want. The amp will show the color that the passenger requests. As you’re pulling up to pick them up, let’s say it’s super crowded. You’re picking someone up from the bar. It’s 2:00 or 3:00 am. Everyone’s outside looking for their Lyft driver. This thing will actually show the color the passenger requested on their phone. Now, the passenger is seeing, “Okay, I selected a purple.” Then the passenger can also hold up their phone and the passenger’s phone should also show purple. Basically, you guys will know to look for each other. It just makes picking up, which can be challenging, especially in those times and scenarios, a lot easier.

I’m actually really impressed with this messaging. I don’t think drivers can control what this says, but maybe that will be something that they institute in the future. You can say, “Hey, what’s up? My name is Harry”, or something like that would be pretty cool, or to cycle whatever certain messages. Just saying hi to your passengers. “Do you need anything? Let me know”, or “Whatever music you like, let me know.” I think that there’s definitely some cool uses that you can do with the actual messaging on the back.

Other gear that comes with AMP

Let’s put the Lyft amp down for a second. I’m assuming that to turn it off, you just hit the power button right there. Yep. It turns off. Like I said, I’m pretty impressed with it. It actually is a pretty cool little device.Then, you can see that it has a little package right in here. That’s a little pink pouch. Like I said, Lyft always does a really great job with their packaging. Even on the cardboard box that it comes in, you can tell that they put a lot of care and energy into just the cardboard box. Right here, we have a little pink box that says … It looks squished. I probably squished it. It says, “In car essentials.” Then, in this box is a magnetic base and a charging chord. I’m not looking through the box. I haven’t opened it yet, but it actually says right here on the back, so I’m cheating.

Let’s take a look at the chord. It’s just your standard USB chord. Actually, it seems like a pretty high quality chord because it is that flexible material. Not too flimsy. There isn’t, I don’t think there’s a charger in here, so you will have to plug this into a USB port or you can have one of those dual 2.4 amp outlet ports. Those are pretty simple. Then, let’s see what else is in this packaging. Then, there’s also the magnetic base. You can see right here that this is a magnetic base. It’s at a slight angle. Right there, you can see a slight angle. I’ll go ahead and attach this for you. Boom. That’s how it works.

Let’s turn it on one more time and see what happens. There you go. Imagine that my hands are the dashboard of my car. You’re rolling up to pick up your passenger. This is exactly what it looks like. Remember, on the back, it has all this writing, which I think is really cool. Obviously, when you install this thing, you’re going to want to go ahead and clean the surface. Then you pull off this sticker, this little pink sticker. There’s a sticky surface on the bottom. Yep, it’s sticky. Place that on. Very simple installation. Then this actually comes off. You can see right there. It’s a magnet. You know, the magnet isn’t super strong, but I think it’s probably definitely a structure that they’ve tested. I hope they’ve tested it. When you’re out driving around hitting bumps, hitting potholes or whatever it might be, driving getting your passengers to their destination, that it’s going to stick. I think that it will. It might move a little bit, but it is pretty sturdy. Pretty secure.

Yeah. That’s how the Lyft amp works. Like I said, it’s telling me right now to open the Lyft amp. Then you can go ahead and pair it. If I were to open my Lyft amp and pair it … I’m not going to go ahead and do that right now, because it might be a big hassle, but there you go. That’s how you do it. You open the Lyft app and then you can pair it from there.

How to get your own AMP

Now, the thing to keep in mind is that this Lyft amp isn’t available in every city yet. There’s two requirements to get one. It has to be in your market and then you also have to have given at least 250 rides with Lyft. Once you meet those requirements, and Lyft is going to be rolling this amp out to all the markets coming forward. If you don’t have it right now, you will have it soon.

All that you need to do on your end is wait for it to come to your market and make sure that you have those 250 rides. Then Lyft will probably confirm your mailing address with you and then send you one of these in the mail. If you don’t get one, obviously go ahead and proactively reach out to them. I do think it’s pretty cool. Not only is it cool, it will also actually help you get your customers into your car faster. That’s one of the nice things. Since you don’t get paid unless they’re sitting in your car and you physically start the trip and then start driving without them. Obviously, you guys want to maximize that time that they’re in the car with you and minimize the time that you’re sitting around calling them on the phone, looking for them and doing all that other work.

Hopefully, you guys enjoyed this unboxing video of the Lyft amp. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’ll do some more. We’re going to go test drive this thing. We’re going to see how it works in real life. We’ll probably do a video or an article on the blog in the future. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out now. If you enjoyed this video, feel free to like, comment, subscribe, and look forward to hearing from you in the future. All right. Take care.