information

If you’d asked when I first began this rideshare gig, I’d have said that information is the most contested component of the industry. I’d have griped that neither Uber nor Lyft tells me the destination for a ride before I accept it. When I started as a lowly blue-tier driver, I didn’t even know how far I’d be going. Now that I’ve ascended to the higher tiers, at least I know distances. But I still don’t know the direction, let alone the location. 

This matters because it’s impossible to maximize my efficiency and earnings without this information. Suppose I pick someone up ten minutes from my house and give them a thirty-minute ride to the University of Massachusetts on a football Saturday once I drop them. In that case, I’ll be getting requests to go short distances with several passengers per ride in a high-demand scenario: that means more dollars per ride with more rides per hour (which matters because bonuses, remember, are based not on miles, but on the number of rides I give in a period of time). 

By contrast, if I pick the same person up and give them a thirty-minute ride to a rural town in the foothills of the Berkshires, I will likely have no ride requests after I drop them off. This means I will waste time and gas navigating to the nearest spot likely to have rides, and even once I’m there, it may be a far less lucrative scenario than the first. 

So, back then, I’d have told you I needed to know where I was going to make informed decisions about which rides to accept and which to reject.            But now I don’t care. Now, I yield to the mysterious algorithm, and the Being I trust works through it. Now, I drive like a leaf on the wind, accepting nearly every ride. I have drained “information” of all value. Now I am free. 

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