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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Simon Goodley

UNBELIEVABLE: Second study finds uber used opaque algorithm to dramatically boost profits - The Untold Story

A driver of an Uber taxi with the company logo on his smartphone which is fixed to the windscreen.
In 2024, Uber reported it had generated $6.9bn of cash during the year. Photograph: Russell Hart/Alamy

A second major academic institution has accused Uber of using opaque computer code to dramatically increase its profits at the expense of the ride-hailing app’s drivers and passengers.

Research by academics at New York’s Columbia Business School concluded that the Silicon Valley company had implemented “algorithmic price discrimination” that had raised “rider fares and cut driver pay on billions of … trips, systematically, selectively, and opaquely”.

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