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23rd May 2016

Uber knows when your battery is low and they’re probably taking advantage

Your drunken decisions just got a bit more complicated.

Jordan Gold

It’s already being described as an “uber rip off”

We’re all guilty of giving apps too much information about ourselves. But when you hit accept and download Uber you give the company the permission to know far about you than you’d think.

Uber’s head of economic research Keith Chen, openly admitted this week in an episode of NPR’s The Hidden Brain that Uber tracks customers battery level and increases surcharge when they know you’re running out of juice.

Uber also knows users are more willing to accept a 2.1x surge than 2.0x one, this is because of phenomenon called “charm pricing“; the same reason that loo roll costs £2.99 instead of £3.00.

Chen called it an “interesting kind of psychological fact of human behavior,” but promised that the company is not using that data to price gouge riders.

Meanwhile, “everyone’s personal driver” has also admitting to experimenting with the possibility of Driverless Cars over the next few years, which could see them reducing their number of employees and letting go of a lot of drivers.

https://twitter.com/Khanoisseur/status/733545263348875264

If you too are feeling a little exploited, don’t worry. So is the whole of Twitter…

https://twitter.com/omgofinternet/status/734650440265142272

https://twitter.com/rohancs/status/734616389806399488

 

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