Uber bias against women is not a myth

A new study has revealed that the women and the black community are the victims of a bias against them.

The study, as picked by Bloomberg, was conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a non-profit research organization. The study showed through a practical research spanning over two years, that the incorporation of tech hasn’t helped and the trending cab hailing e-services are also probable to show gender and racist discrimination which once used to be the part and parcel of traditional transportation services.

The study recorded discrimination faced by groups of people, categorized under a set of various differentiating factors. The study, which was done by researchers at MIT, Stanford and the University of Washington, took data from about 1,500 rides that happened in big metropolitan areas of Seattle and Boston.

The study included services from Uber, Lyft, and Flywheel. It showed that the females involved in the study were taken to longer routes and driven for longer time durations, by as much as five percent, as compared to men. The women involved were being overcharged by talkative drivers, or to be more specific “chatty” drivers, who took them for longer rides.

The biasing was also existent against the black and the people with African-American-sounding names. For example, in Seattle, it was also shown that trip requests from black riders took between 16 to 28 percent longer to be accepted by both UberX and Lyft. UberX showed an in increased wait time of 29 to 35 percent longer than as taken by the white counterparts.

A Uber representative, while communicating the company’s stance, mentioned,

“Discrimination has no place in society and no place on Uber. We believe Uber is helping reduce transportation inequities across the board, but studies like this one are helpful in thinking about how we can do even more.”

Note: The study can be amended provided the concerned entities extend their data with the researchers.