1). Not true. What’s surge pricing then? During NYE and Halloween, absolute peak demand time, drivers are not required to work - they’re instead made aware of higher earnings during those times and can decide for themselves.
2). How is this different from any other contractor? Are you saying a true contractor can stop working right in the middle of a job? Imagine if you hired a plumber and they took apart your toilet and then just left in the middle of the job. The nature of the work determines when someone can start/stop working for any reasonable contractor.
FYI, Sidecar did this in 2013 - you could set your own price, both as a rider and driver. Then, when you request a ride, it would be more like market-making, with you getting matched with the driver whose price is closest to your requested price, but under it. I personally tried using this many times - it was a poor experience for riders. I can imagine it wasn't very pleasant for drivers either.
The theoretical ideal price for a ridesharing trip changes in realtime and depends on many different factors like how many drivers are nearby, how many other riders are nearby, each driver's willingness to drive to your destination, etc. Letting riders and drivers set their own prices would make the market significantly less efficient, and would make both the experience for both sides of the marketplace quite miserable, especially during events like demand spikes. There is literally a several hundred-strong organization at Uber (Marketplace) whose single focus is to make a maximally efficient marketplace. It's honestly kind of dismissive to suggest something like this, and to call it "a simple change".
Disclaimer: the above is not meant to be a representation of how Uber pricing works, just my own theoretical musing
Uber is already doing buses in LatAm and MENA. Most North American cities (except NYC really) just don’t have the density to make the unit economics work for a marketplace with buses. Also, Express POOL (shared ride with walking in order to make the trip more efficient) is already dirt cheap.
The biggest abuse of this was definitely with the A’s stadium in Oakland. If a game doesn’t sell out, the city pays for the empty seats. Your tax dollars at work.
No, it’s true. This was right after the Susan Fowler event when Uber’s Blind channel blew up in membership. They blocked it, people just laughed and turned off wifi, and then they unblocked it a few weeks later.
2). How is this different from any other contractor? Are you saying a true contractor can stop working right in the middle of a job? Imagine if you hired a plumber and they took apart your toilet and then just left in the middle of the job. The nature of the work determines when someone can start/stop working for any reasonable contractor.