The company has denied that the symbols are just there to make us believe that there are cars near our location. “Instead, these phantom cars are part of a “visual effect” that Uber uses to emphasize the proximity of drivers to passengers”.
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Uber users – you’ve seen those little cars that drive around the map on your mobile app? “But if she saw a cluster of cars seemingly milling around on the same street, she’s more likely to request a ride”, Rosenblat said.
The claim was made by Alex Rosenblat and Luke Stark, a pair of researchers from the Data & Society thinktank. The researchers called the phantom cars as “Deceptive” to passengers, in an article for Vice’s Motherboard.
He quoted Heather, an Uber driver, who once opened the passenger app to find four drivers on the streets immediately by her pick-up location.
The researchers have also said that Uber’s controversial practice of increasing the fare during times of high demand, known as surge pricing, is based on illusory circumstances.
One customer representative of Uber in the US has also been cited in the study.
“The app is simply showing there are partners on the road at the time, this is not a representation of the exact numbers of drivers or their location”. The app is like a “Screensaver” of visual effects. So, this is why latency can affect whether customers are seeing the precise location of drivers on their smartphone app. “Yet, the estimated wait time for the closest auto was 17 minutes, and there were no other drivers in sight”.
This does not mean that the location is not accurate or representative, but rather that it isn’t visible to the rider until the trip is accepted, according to Uber.
All in all, a person familiar with this subject said that the app will not show more cars than there are in the area, but, sometimes, it will display fewer vehicles that are available nevertheless, provided there are more than eight drivers nearby.
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“The suppliers get to see only what a system expects the state of the market to be, and not the market itself”, according to the authors, implying that the surge system is more self-serving for Uber than their market “facilitator” status would suggest. The reason is to protect the safety of the driver.
