A recent experiment by a young Indian entrepreneur Rishabh Singh, founder of Delhi based engineerHUB, has sparked an online debate over fairness of Uber pricing algorithm. Singh, who posted his work on X – previously Twitter, explained how certain parameters, including the device platform and battery level, could influence ride prices.
In his post titled “The Curious Case of Uber Fare Discrepancies: Platform and Battery Impact,” Singh also provided screenshots of his observations while using the application. He took two Android and two iOS devices using the same Uber account and made a ride fare comparison in similar circumstances. The results that they obtained reflected high variability.
Check Out the Viral Post
The Variations Platform Based Pricing Differences
Singh reported aroid observed significant differential fare rates between Android and iOS gadgets. Such discounts as “13% off” or “50% off” were seen irregularly, so, he concluded that Uber’s pricing algorithms seem to differ depending on the platform. “However, at the same account level, the same location, and the same time, the prices were also different,” stated Singh who believed that the variation could be due to platform-specific A/B test or metadata-based pricing model.
Variations Based on Battery Levels
But it assumed yet another interesting twist when Singh looked at the effect of battery charges. He noted that, devices with less battery power indicated that they were showing higher fares than other devices with higher battery power. Our algorithm hypothesis was; Singh assumed that Uber system considers as users with low battery as more probably to accept higher fare rates owing to time constraint. “This is where, for instance, with regards to battery data, pricing algorithms could take advantage of a user’s weakened state,” he said as he made the connection with behavioural economics.
Singh said these results and urged Uber to provide more transparency in its pricing. “Users need to understand if their device data including battery levels or platform type is being used to adjust fares,” he said. He encouraged all the ride hailing organizations to make sure that their compiled algorithms of operations respect fairness and accountability to enable trust.
Users Reaction to the Post
One of the users gave an advice and wrote, "Moral of the story - buy a second phone which is cheapest android phone and power bank to book cheap uber rides." Whereas a second user said, "I have also experienced this. Not just Uber, Ola also have similar pricing strategy. All quick commerce platforms like zepto and others follow the same strategy. Different pricing for android and iPhone. Owning an iPhone is a crime, recently came to know."
A third user commented, "The dynamic pricing in such ride hailing platform is exploited by some drivers to increase the fare by taking a longer route to destination. Some even ask fares above the app mentioned price to even accept the ride."