{"id":181441,"date":"2016-06-26T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T23:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/06\/26\/uber-gets-even-more-evil\/"},"modified":"2016-06-26T18:25:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T23:25:00","slug":"uber-gets-even-more-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/06\/26\/uber-gets-even-more-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber Gets Even More Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Uber has redefined it app to conceal when it charges surge prices to its users<\/a>:<\/p>\n

An Uber exec recently disclosed that the company knows when you are more likely to pay surge pricing. (It\u2019s when your phone battery is just about to die<\/a>.) But with a potential app change Uber is rolling out, this might not matter, because you probably won\u2019t notice that surge is even in effect. <\/p>\n

The app change, The Verge<\/a> reports, would eliminate the blue-and-black circle that pops up before you hail a ride, letting you know that your trip will cost you two or three times what it usually does. On that screen, users also have to manually input the surge percentage, a sort of formal acknowledgement they know the ride will cost extra. (Like guac.) <\/p>\n

Instead, now when you order a ride, you\u2019ll see a set fare, a small line of text letting you know there\u2019s an additional cost, and no second confirmation or indication of the surge multiplier.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did you notice that especially evil bit there? It jacks up the rates when it knows that your battery is about to die<\/a>?  That is deeply evil on a level  that buggers the mind:<\/p>\n

Other than the company\u2019s notoriously lax attitude about background checks<\/a>, allegations of drivers kidnapping and raping<\/a> riders, and that, um, interesting new logo, the worst thing about Uber is surge pricing. And, not surprisingly, the company has figured out exactly when<\/i> you are more likely to pay double or triple the cost of your ride: when your phone battery is low. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a company with a multi-billion dollar valuation, which means that this is a company that our society (or at least our financial system) lionizes.<\/p>\n

This is a particularly searing indictment of the values we hold as a society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Uber has redefined it app to conceal when it charges surge prices to its users: An Uber exec recently disclosed that the company knows when you are more likely to pay surge pricing. (It\u2019s when your phone battery is just about to die.) But with a potential app change Uber is rolling out, this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1005,969,1003,1024,1035],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-evil","category-philosophy","category-society","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}