Legally, it’s not compulsory. Socially and culturally, it definitely is. In the US, if you don’t tip 15%, you’re either an asshole, or you’re saying there’s severe issues with the service.

I’m not going justify this culture—I don’t like it either—but that is the way it is.

I'm in the US and a frequent Uber users, and I've only tipped once over 10 years. My rating is 4.93, so I don't think the drivers see me as an asshole.

It is possible there exists a table called dbo.user_ratings with a boolean column called IsAsshole, and you might have tons of rows there all with a 1 on the boolean column but the Uber APIs don't return that value. CEO Travis could tell us if it exists

It's doubtful drivers are able to see whether or not a rider tipped before they are prompted to rate them.

No one using an Uber tips.

Uber didn't originally have tips but the US Uber drivers wanted tips and pushed to implement it.

How many of them really wanted it? To me when Uber added tipping it seemed to come out of the blue. (And it was stupid and bad for everyone except possibly Uber, because the equilibrium total fare in a marketplace with reputation tracking is not going to be raised by turning part of it into a tip, it just adds uncertainty and friction.)

I don't know how many of the wanted it but here is an article that talks about it. Atleast is New York City they were forced to implement it and then it expanded from there.

> Uber might finally be forced to change its tune after New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission introduced a proposal this week that would require ride-hailing companies operating in the city to allow riders to tip their drivers. The need to follow a rule like that in one of Uber's biggest and most important markets could force the company to allow tipping across the country or around the world.

> The Independent Drivers Guild lobbied for the New York proposal, which it estimates will lead to over $300 million per year in tips for New York drivers.

https://mashable.com/article/uber-nyc-tipping

Thanks for the info. Can't see why anyone would downvote you, unless it's that the writer of that story is totally picking a side.

it's not compulsory and culture is different in US

I don't tip on Lyft. 5 stars. 800 rides.

I don't tip on Uber. 4.89 rating. 700 rides.

I have friends who tip and tbh when I don't get a ride, they don't get a ride and when they get a ride, I get a ride. So obviously the tipping means nothing.

Occasionally I might tip, but only if I got something out of it. And it's rare. I think I might have tipped on 10 out of the 1500 rides.

Tipping sucks but people rely on it and I have enough money to tip or I don’t use the service. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/22/980047710/the-land-of-the-fee

I'd only tip a uber/rideshare driver if the experience was above and beyond... I do not expect this kind of service from every driver, nor do I expect them to try to provide it every time.

It should be a reward for exceptional service, not a default assumption for average (or so help me, sub average) service.