Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

Good for them. Someone should build an app they can run that automatically logs them in and out to maximize pricing.

Though I imagine it wouldn't be hard for Uber to implement some basic security to thwart it.

Sounds like a nice little loophole the drivers found to make a few extra bucks. It's always interesting to me when people find little tricks they can do the bend an algo their direction.

This reminds me a lot of the LinkedIn algo hacks that's driving me nuts right now. If you post super long form, cheesy, generic paragraphs of text with no links/visuals - you get massive exposure. The result has been superficial posts filling up my feed talking about who knows what.

Much like the nuisance of a pricing surge on Uber, these algo hacks can be a real pain.

I'm somewhat surprised no app has popped up to be the driver private peer to peer network. For chat, news, stats, and automating things like this.

edit Supporting comment apparently wasn't appreciated. No delete button.

Yeah, I'm mostly not a fan, now that we're a few years in. Waves of people inexperienced, untrained in shuttling people around a major metro have resulted in downtown Chicago being an utter mess compared to only a few years ago. Chicago forced cab drivers to go through a training and certification course that at least forced them to understand the major routes and grid system we're on, and every time I've been in an uber they are completely tethered to their phones nav systems.

So, now we've got an army of drivers who can't drive, don't know where they are going, playing with their phones all day. It makes for an unpleasant experience whether you're on a bike, driving you car, or sometimes just walking across the street.