Researchers from the University of Warwick found that Uber drivers in new York and London cheat app, artificially creating a situation in which the system perceives as a shortage of cars, resulting in rising prices on the trip.
The study says that drivers are manipulated by the algorithm, leaving the application at the same time. The app thinks cars is not enough, and voila – the price of your trip increases significantly. Uber raises prices for its services, the rising demand for vehicles, since their number is limited, for example, in rush hour, during public events or later in the evening. Rates at this time exceed the cost of regular trips 3-4 times.
The researchers found that drivers deliberately raise prices after I talked with some of them in London and new York, and after visiting specialized online forums, such as Uberpeople.net where users openly discuss the strategy of raising prices. Answering the question of what would happen if Uber will find that drivers manipulate their algorithm, user forums say that the company knows about it, since such «conspiracies» occur every week.
The researchers note that this behavior reflects the dissatisfaction of Uber drivers under the policy in respect of the employees and reveals the «ethically questionable» nature of algorithm the application. Uber deniesthat the practice of manipulation of the algorithm is widely used. The company said that this method is cheating prices are not valid in the application, as there exist a number of technical safeguards that prevent it.
In the past the company has been criticized for raising prices at a time when the passengers were not alternative but to use the services of Uber, for example, during the strike of the subway workers.
