Study finds bias by some Uber and Lyft drivers
By tapping into technologies and the ubiquitous use of smartphones, the likes of Uber and Lyft — rival ride-booking services — were supposed to solve many of the problems that litter the traditional economy. But it turns out some of those problems are hard to tackle, even for these Silicon Valley darlings.
That is the conclusion from an academic paper published Monday that said African-American users of these digital services faced racial discrimination by some Uber and Lyft drivers.
The findings — based on 1,500 combined trips in Seattle and Boston — come on the heels of similar racial discrimination accusations against Airbnb, the vacation rental website, where people with African-American-sounding names found it harder to rent rooms than their white counterparts.
Accusations of racial discrimination also have been levied at conventional taxi services. But the claims against these newer tech companies could tarnish their reputations if such practices are not addressed quickly.
Airbnb, for its part, has recently taken steps to stamp out such racial bias.
As part of the research into Uber and Lyft, African-American and white users in Seattle and Boston hailed rides separately with both services.
“We found that African-American travelers in Seattle experienced statistically significantly longer delay waiting for a trip request through UberX or Lyft to be accepted,” said the researchers from the University of Washington, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford.
UberX is Uber’s lowcost service.
“We theorize that at least some drivers for both UberX and Lyft discriminate on the basis of the perceived race of the traveler,” they added.
Rachel Holt, Uber’s head of North American operations, said there was no place for racism on the company’s online platform.
“Studies like this one are helpful in thinking about how we can do even more,” she said.
Adrian Durbin, a Lyft spokesman, said that the company does not “tolerate any form of discrimination.”