Car-sharing or ride-hailing services have only been around for a few years now, but have seen a lot of controversies, more so than any other companies in recent memory. The latest situation comes after both Uber and Lyft, two of the most prominent companies in the US market reportedly discriminated against passengers from minorities.
Earlier this year, a study revealed that customers which are part of certain minority groups were more often discriminated against by both Uber and Lyft services. The study focuses mostly on how customers of African-American descent face more cancellations from drivers, or at least waited longer for their rides. Women from this group even experienced longer rides than normal.
The study gained traction and was picked up by news sites, and it even reached Senator Al Franken of Minnesota. He wrote an open letter on November 2, and addressed it to both companies, urging them to investigate these reports of discrimination based on race.
The study revealed that the revealing the name and photo of a customer when a request to a driver is placed, is what mainly caused the drivers to discriminate between their customers. People with a picture on their profile or with black-sounding names had experienced the highest degree of discrimination. As such, the senator suggested that removing the need for passenger’s name and photos to be displayed when requesting a ride could be a solution to this problem.
Today, the senator decided to publish both Uber’s and Lyft’s responses to his open letter. The document reveals that both companies defended their current practices. Uber considered that removing names or photos from a request or even replacing them with codes could create a series of confusions for drivers. The company believes that this may even lead to various forms of accidents like someone pretending to be an Uber driver.
Lyft offered a similar defense to that of Uber, claiming that its drivers only receive the star rating of a client before accepting the request. Afterward, only the first name of the customer is seen by the driver, with photo account being optional and are never seen by drivers in the first place.
Both companies believe that this type of information is not enough to lead to wide-spread discrimination. Furthermore, its benefits outweigh any negatives as it is required to create a digital trust profile.
Image source: Flickr
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