News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles. Parent comment

Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles by rad88 on Thursday March 02, 2017 @12:57AM (#13771816)
Uber's claim is that black people are known to tip poorly, and so drivers would be incentivized to cancel their rides in favor of fares they expect will tip better. Therefore they don't allow tipping to prevent racism. Supposedly...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles by smileysteve on Thursday March 02, 2017 @01:08AM (#13771868)
They changed their tipping policy in May 2016 in response to a contractor lawsuit.

Drivers are now allowed to ask for tips; I've had drivers with tip jars and squares available. And I've seen reddit discussions of drivers calling riders who don't tip dicks.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles by trevor-e on Thursday March 02, 2017 @01:05AM (#13771851)
Couldn't drivers also negatively rate passengers in retaliation if they don't tip?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles by smileysteve on Thursday March 02, 2017 @01:13AM (#13771894)
They can and hbr wrote an article about it.

https://hbr.org/2016/05/ubers-new-tipping-policy-is-a-mistak...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles by untog on Thursday March 02, 2017 @01:06AM (#13771855)
That is in no way true.

Suggesting that black people are somehow to blame for Uber not allowing in-app tips is one of the most out there things I've seen on HN, and that's saying something.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles by smileysteve on Thursday March 02, 2017 @01:10AM (#13771878)
Tipping has been studied and has been associated with discrimination on gender, race, and class.

http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a23132/why-tip...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles by untog on Thursday March 02, 2017 @10:22AM (#13774621)
It's a long way to go from that to saying that Uber have enacted a policy specifically because of it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles by rad88 on Thursday March 02, 2017 @11:22AM (#13775280)
Uber enacted their tipping policy to keep total control over prices and moreover to keep prices low.

When they were sued by their own workers because of this and had their backs against the wall, they had to claim it was because of this racist hand-wavy BS.

It was a ret-con and an incredibly cynical and insulting thing to do, but that's now the official reason they didn't allow tips.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles by rad88 on Thursday March 02, 2017 @10:55AM (#13774960)
This is the claim made by Uber spokesmen. I also heard it directly from an Uber manager. It disgusted me too.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/04/27/uber-resists...

[ Parent | on HN ]