Research
Dr.Femi Obasun
Abstract
Uber has developed as a leader in the private taxi business. Uber is a "ridesharing" service that coordinatesresponsible drivers with consumers looking for transportations. Unlike other well-known transportation services suchas local taxi services and public transportation, Uber is a stimuli inputs company, meaning all data on customers anddrivers are kept inward and, output reactions are mostly not provided to the open market. They do not giveinformation about supply or demand, and rates are set by an obscure "surge pricing" algorithm, or customerbehavior, and driver earnings. The absence of transparency has caused numerous concerns on whether Uberartificially manipulate prices, and whether changing prices are favorable to customers and drivers. In exploring surgepricing and its influence on passengers and drivers, the researcher presents the first in-depth inquiry of Uber bygoing undercover as a driver. Gathered fifty-one weeks of data from Uber by imitating the Uber smartphone driverapprovedapp and sharing ride throughout Hampton Roads of Virginia. Utilizing dataset collected from 961 trips, weare able to identify the concept of Uber in the Hampton Road of Virginia, as well as recognize essentialimplementation specifications of Uber's surge price algorithm, or customer behavior, and driver earnings. Ourobservations concerning Uber's surge price algorithm, or customer behavior, and driver earnings raise importantquestions about the fairness and the transparency of the system.