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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the You're-a-mean-one,-Mr-Glitch! dept.

Uber glitch not paying drivers:

A glitch within the Uber driver payment system is forcing San Diego drivers off the road, and riders are paying for it with higher charges.

[...] Uber drivers earn a commission on each drive that they perform. At the end of the trip, that money is pooled and is available two ways for the driver. The most traditional is a weekly period paid into a bank account after the period ends. The other method is InstaPay, which drivers use to finance their Uber duties. Instapay allows drivers to "cash out" their earnings, and thus self-fund their Uber duties without having to access their traditional accounts.

The glitch within the system has halted payments being made to drivers, and unable to access their funds, drivers are not available to Uber. By mid-afternoon Friday, September 14, the glitch had pushed enough San Diego drivers off the platform that the entire region began to surge. Surge is higher pay for the drivers that continue to work, and, higher costs for passenger riders

The glitch in the payment system also means that trip and safety issues are unable to be reported, either by the passenger, or the driver.


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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @08:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @08:56AM (#736433)

    Funny how those glitches seems to never err on the side in which the drivers get more money or the customers pay less.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:04PM (5 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday September 18 2018, @01:04PM (#736484) Journal

    The glitch is called Uber. The bugfix is driverless cars.

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    • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday September 18 2018, @06:59PM (3 children)

      by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @06:59PM (#736655)

      Speaking of 'bugfixes', can't people just switch over to Lyft instead? Seems odd that Uber can surge price in a major metropolitan area where there's probably (?) a direct competitor in clicking range.

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:34PM (2 children)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:34PM (#736678) Journal

        Lyft markets themselves as the top "not-evil Uber alternative", but Lyft is just as keen to kick its drivers into the gutter to die:

        https://www.lyft.com/self-driving-vehicles [lyft.com]
        https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/technology/lyft-magna-driverless-cars.html [nytimes.com]

        DIE DIE DIE

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        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:44PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:44PM (#736685)

          The system of "ridesharing," aka unlicensed taxi service, is keen to kick its drivers into the gutter to die, as anyone who's every analyzed TCO of an Uber/Lyft able car against what one gets for using it. Drivers are just throwing their future away by unsustainably burning up their resources for cash now.

        • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday September 18 2018, @10:44PM

          by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @10:44PM (#736791)

          Isn't basically every car manufacturer keen to kick its 'drivers' out? Couldn't these rideshare services keep the 'driver' around to grab the wheel in case of an emergency, and keep the ride-rental model around?

    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:00PM

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:00PM (#736727) Homepage Journal

      In Portland, radio cab and Broadway cab

      I patronize brick and mortars. If I'm forced to order online I never use Amazon

      I don't own a car and so get to work quite a lot quicker and cheaper than those who do

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:39PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:39PM (#736555)

    Isn't it funny how these "glitches" always seem to favor the company. Banking mistakes almost always seem to favor the bank. Ditto paying off mortgages early "oops, you wanted all that to go against the principle? Somehow the software keeps reverting a chunk back to paying interest even though this isn't a regular payment and that shouldn't happen" etc. etc. etc.

    I've yet to see one of these "glitches" ever favor a customer. Funny that.

    • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Tuesday September 18 2018, @04:49PM (1 child)

      by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @04:49PM (#736594)

      Glitchs in favor of the customer do happen. Its just that they usually get caught and fixed before the customer every spots it. Ever notice your checking account off by a penny?

      My supervisor at a place I used to work told me he used to work at a bank fixing those errors, Everyday his team would get a list of accounts that had somehow gotten extra money added to them, badly routed deposit, rounding errors, mistypes transfer amounts, etc.. The team would start with the biggest amount, sometimes in the >$millions, and work their way down, confirming it was an actual mistake and applying a correction to the customers account. Sometimes they finished a list, other times they didn't but the amounts leftover where usually in the sub $1 range and not considered too important, The next day they started on a new list.

      So error in the customer's favor do happen, just they get fixed before much faster than errors that favor the bank.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @06:26PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @06:26PM (#736640)

        Which isn't surprising given that errors that favor the bank that get missed are extra profits. Or at least some extra money to collect interest on while the details are worked out. Whereas errors in favor of the customer don't bring any windfall profit. Given how big some of these banks are, even a few dollars here and there can wind up with a large amount made on this.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @07:50PM (#736690)

    ... yet another reason "ridesharing" services should be held to taxi regulation. Taxis cannot legally do that for good reason, and should be protected from opportunism.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @12:41AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @12:41AM (#736849)

    Can someone explain this?

    The other method is InstaPay, which drivers use to finance their Uber duties. Instapay allows drivers to "cash out" their earnings, and thus self-fund their Uber duties without having to access their traditional accounts.

    What does it mean to "finance their Uber duties"? Is this prositution? Or is it just a way to pay their "contractors" without having to deal with Unemployment insurance, Workperson's Comp, or the good ol' IRS? Disruptive tech: a new way to pay people under the table. Now cashless!

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