To keep drivers on the road, the company has exploited some people’s tendency to set earnings goals - alerting them that they are ever so close to hitting a precious target when they try to log off. It’s a quest for a perfectly efficient system: a balance between rider demand and driver supply at the lowest cost to passengers and the company.Įmploying hundreds of social scientists and data scientists, Uber has experimented with video game techniques, graphics and noncash rewards of little value that can prod drivers into working longer and harder - and sometimes at hours and locations that are less lucrative for them. Uber helps solve this fundamental problem by using psychological inducements and other techniques unearthed by social science to influence when, where and how long drivers work. And this lack of control can wreak havoc on a service whose goal is to seamlessly transport passengers whenever and wherever they want. This allows Uber to minimize labor costs, but means it cannot compel drivers to show up at a specific place and time. Uber’s innovations reflect the changing ways companies are managing workers amid the rise of the freelance-based “gig economy.” Its drivers are officially independent business owners rather than traditional employees with set schedules. “We are now re-examining everything we do in order to rebuild that love.”Īnd yet even as Uber talks up its determination to treat drivers more humanely, it is engaged in an extraordinary behind-the-scenes experiment in behavioral science to manipulate them in the service of its corporate growth - an effort whose dimensions became evident in interviews with several dozen current and former Uber officials, drivers and social scientists, as well as a review of behavioral research. “We’ve underinvested in the driver experience,” a senior official said. Notably, the company also announced that it would fix its troubled relationship with drivers, who have complained for years about falling pay and arbitrary treatment. But in March, facing crises on multiple fronts, top officials convened a call for reporters to insist that Uber was changing its culture and would no longer tolerate “brilliant jerks.” The secretive ride-hailing giant Uber rarely discusses internal matters in public.
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