To be fair, I can only deduce from what I see on my end and not being a programmer I’m sure many of my deductions are wrong. The one thing I do know that Uber can’t control is whether any specific driver is going to be working. The driver doesn’t even have to accept any one request- if I see your request to pick you up at the Spurs game I’m going to lol and not accept (or cancel) that shit. (Picking up at stadiums and airports just isn’t worth it, no matter the surge.)
And so it is hard to build an algorithm which takes into account the drivers behavior - your ride could be more expensive not just because of demand, but because drivers keep refusing it. That’s the point I was trying to get across.
Anyway, I wrote a book review in the form of one of my Uber ride stories. 1,700 words, 4 hours from initial conception to writing to posting, I don’t know if it is the best thing I ever wrote but, as you will see in the follow-up comments, it was met with great favor from the lovely lady referenced in the story…