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| - It's true Uber has access to customers' phone battery information, according to statements from company officials.
A screenshot that allegedly depicts the Uber app telling a customer, "Your phone's battery is low, so we increased prices" appears to have been fabricated by an account on X known for satirical posts.
The company has consistently denied the claim that users' battery information is used for surge pricing. Until independent evidence surfaces to verify the company's position and debunk the rumor — such as a comprehensive study across a variety of geographic locations, times, traffic conditions and other variables — the claim remains unproven.
For years, a rumor has circulated alleging the ride-hailing app Uber increases ride prices for customers with low phone batteries.
For instance, a popular Reddit post with the claim displays an alleged screenshot of the app with a message to the customer, "Your phone's battery is low, so we increased prices. You may want to book fast." In October 2024, the claim surfaced again on Threads, with a user asking, "Did you know that Uber will charge you up to 3x the price if your battery is low?"
(Versole on Reddit)
One Reddit user responded, "This seems a bit criminal. Better plug my phone up 30 minutes before you order an uber." Another wrote, "Yes it is a known fact they charge pax [sic] more for a low battery [battery emoji] TRUE ! Been proved more than once. Don't believe try at home yourselves."
This claim first became popular in 2016 following an appearance by Uber's then-head of economic research, Keith Chen, on NPR's Hidden Brain. While discussing his career as a behavioral economist and the specific behavioral trends Uber had observed, Chen told NPR:
We do though, you know, in the Uber data, see a lot of really, really interesting patterns. So, for example, a data scientist named Peter at Uber discovered somewhat accidentally this really, really kind of interesting fact. And that is one of the strongest predictors of whether or not you are going to be sensitive to surge — in other words, whether or not you are going to kind of say, oh, 2.2, 2.3, I'll give it a 10 to 15 minutes to see if surge goes away — is how much battery you have left on your cellphone.
[…]
When your cellphone is like down to like below 5% battery and that little icon on the iPhone turns red, you know, then people start saying, well, I better get home, like, because I don't quite know how I'm going to get home otherwise. And we absolutely don't use that to kind of like push you a higher surge price, but it's an interesting kind of psychological fact of human behavior.
In other words, in the 2016 interview, Chen said Uber did indeed have access to battery charge information but was not using it to increase surge pricing. Instead, he suggested users were more likely to pay the surge prices if their phone battery was low, rather than wait for the price to drop and risk their phone going dead.
So it's true Uber has access to customers' phone battery information, according to the company itself. However, Uber has consistently denied the claim that it uses that information to increase prices. Until independent evidence surfaces to verify the company's position and debunk the rumor — such as a comprehensive study across a variety of geographic locations, times, traffic conditions and other variables — the claim remains unproven.
Also, the above-displayed screenshot that allegedly depicts the Uber app telling a customer, "Your phone's battery is low, so we increased prices" appears to be created by an account on X known for satirical posts before spreading to Reddit.
Uber Denies the Claim
In order to use Uber, customers agree to let the company have access to certain phone data, including battery life. As per the
We collect data about the devices used to access our services, including the hardware models, device IP address or other unique device identifiers, operating systems and versions, software, preferred languages, advertising identifiers, device motion data and mobile network data.
Furthermore, the company is transparent about using what it calls "surge pricing" — or, changing prices for rides based on real-time demand. While adjusting prices, it says it considers market conditions, such as how many drivers are available at a particular time, as well as whether any major emergencies are affecting public safety. The company says of surge pricing:
Surge pricing is a relief valve for the rideshare marketplace. Without it, when demand for rides exceeds the number of available drivers, riders would wait longer (or might not be able to get a ride at all). Drivers would have less incentive to accept requests in busy areas. Surge pricing helps restore balance to the network. By waiting a bit longer, riders can avoid the surge price.
But the company has consistently denied the claim that it uses phone battery data to set prices, and there have yet to be any comprehensive, independent studies to confirm that position.
Small experiments
Experiments with small sample groups have tested the claim, however. In 2023,
Uber does not take into account the phone's battery level to calculate the price of a trip. The dynamic pricing applied to trips booked via Uber is determined by the existing demand for rides and the supply of drivers who can respond to it. During peak hours, when there are many ride requests and few available drivers in a certain geographical area, this may affect the price of the trip.
Uber does not use personalized pricing nor is battery life a factor in determining fares. Pricing is optimized for the network as a whole, not any one individual rider or driver.
In July 2024, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, issued a statement calling on Uber — as well as its main competitor, Lyft — for more transparency in its surge pricing practices and directly mentioned the 2016 NPR interview with Chen:
Historically, Uber has denied claims that it uses consumers' private data to set fares; however, in 2016, the head of economic research at Uber, Keith Chen, stated that one of the strongest predictors of customers' willingness to pay for increased fares was the amount of battery left on a device. More recent research has shown that Uber's prices increase when a device has low battery — suggesting that Uber preys upon the perceived desperation of their customers. Instead of enabling consumers to make informed decisions, aggressive companies — like Uber — exploit technology and consumer data to manipulate consumers, extracting every last cent possible from them.
Snopes reached out to Uber's communications team seeking any additional information about the claim and the company's response to it. We will update this article if we hear back.
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