Your smartphone may share vital information such as your behaviour under certain circumstances to third party apps, which could use the information to manipulate your decisions.
Your smartphone may share vital information such as your behaviour under certain circumstances to third party apps, which could use the information to manipulate your decisions.
Using the information about its users behavioural pattern, Keith Chen, Uber’s Head of Economic Research, said users, who are running low on smartphone battery, were so desperate that they booked a cab even at 9.9x surge pricing. “One of the strongest predictors of whether or not you’re going to be sensitive to surge is how much battery you have left on your cellphone,” Mr Chen said.
He, however, denied manipulating the surge pricing using such information from the user’s phone. “We absolutely don’t use that to kind of like push you a higher surge price, but it’s an interesting kind of psychological fact of human behaviour,” Mr Chen said.
Uber claims that it uses “dynamic or surge pricing” to meet its goal of getting a car to anyone who wants one within minutes in a busy city and provide an incentive for drivers to go where they're most needed. People who have time to wait longer usually pay a cheaper fare.
Even though Uber denies using such vital information to increase its tariff, it could cause concern among people.
Uber’s pricing model has come under attack in Delhi with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal calling it “daylight looting” and it faced a similar criticism in Australia when people fleeing a hostage situation in Sydney had to accept surge pricing.
Mr Chen, however, feels people are getting used to the surge it doesn’t affect demand during peak time.
