You have been assimilated [CAUTION: Long read]

[Hawkmoon]

Good grief!

Uber: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/02/technology/uber-drivers-psychological-tricks.html

Why would anyone want to drive for these people?

[RevDisk]

A lot of businesses do this. "Churn and burn" was the old term back in the 90's. Not sure what the current politically correct term is for burning through your employees and replacing them with other disposable people. Amazon is/was infamous for it fairly recently, at least in their warehouses.

[freakazoid]

So they use incentives to get their workers to work harder/longer? The app lets you know if you are a short amount away from making a dollar amount for the day? It uses an award system for making progress and reaching certain goals? It lets you know about a customer waiting before you dropped off your current one therefore letting you know right away that you can pick someone up again real soon and also means that the customer now doesn't have to wait as long? The horror!

I get the feeling that this is just a hit piece to benefit the taxi companies.

[Perd Hapley]

So they use incentives to get their workers to work harder/longer? The app lets you know if you are a short amount away from making a dollar amount for the day? It uses an award system for making progress and reaching certain goals? It lets you know about a customer waiting before you dropped off your current one therefore letting you know right away that you can pick someone up again real soon and also means that the customer now doesn't have to wait as long? The horror!

That was my impression. There's not much there that seems objectionable. The biggest problem I saw in the whole article is the detail that Uber doesn't tell its drivers where people want to go. That would really bother me, and might keep me from driving for Uber at all (if I were considering it). I hope they at least tell the driver how far the person wants to go, but I would also want to know the destination, or what direction they're going in.

[MechAg94]

That was my impression. There's not much there that seems objectionable. The biggest problem I saw in the whole article is the detail that Uber doesn't tell its drivers where people want to go. That would really bother me, and might keep me from driving for Uber at all (if I were considering it). I hope they at least tell the driver how far the person wants to go, but I would also want to know the destination, or what direction they're going in.

I guess it depends.  Is there a minimum charge for short trips so the driver at least gets a few bucks for going down the road?  I don't know how they work that if there is no tipping. 

Uber was a good way to earn money at one time from what I heard people say.  They reduced driver pay a while back so I don't know if that is still the case. 

[Fitz]

the reason they don't give destination specifics is to solve a problem other short lived services had: people accepting then cancelling a ride or not accepting at all.

makes sense to me. if you want to drive for a service like this, you go where the customers want you to.

Sometimes it sucks, but even in less trafficked areas you generally don't have to wait too long for a fare.