Uber has been one of the great technological innovations of the last couple of years, but it turns out that they’re complete bastards. I guess this shouldn’t be that surprising considering almost every major corporation in the world is, but I guess most of us probably felt like Uber was pretty awesome because it was so cheap and easy to use.

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Not so. Like many of the apps that you download onto your phone, you give Uber the ability to access your phone and harvest information about you. This extends to the knowledge of how much battery you have on your phone, and Uber’s head of economic research Keith Chen openly admits that the company uses this data and charges you more because of it. Bastards.

Chen also explained that the company regularly price surges at rates that involve a decimal point as people are more likely to accept this fare then if it’s straight up doubled. This is a phenomenon known as ‘charm pricing’ and it’s the same reason that stuff costs £2.99 instead of £3. I’m not sure why that is but it’s a trait of the human brain apparently. Anyway, obviously Uber are going to exploit that as well.

The company is also experimenting with driverless cars so they can make even more money by firing half of their workforce and replacing it with robots. I mean of course they are, right?

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I don’t really know how to feel about this. Obviously I’m not going to stop using Uber because it’s a completely sick company, but it’s a shame that they’re using the data on our phones to rip us off. I suppose I’ll just keep my phone charged up when I’m getting an Uber so they can’t use that trick on me? That’s the only real solution I can think of here.

For another reason why Uber sucks, check out what this one driver did to a customer. Absolutely outrageous.