Uber says driver price-naming and destination previewing policies it introduced last year in California have hurt its business, and is considering ending both
Carolyn Said / San Francisco Chronicle : Tweets: @csaid , @gigworkersrise , @sarah_stierch , @kateconger , @sfchronicle , @davidzipper , @reinh , @gigwc , @ssmith_calabor , @daveleeft , and @mattrosoff Tweets: Carolyn Said / @csaid : Exclusive: Uber may soon axe drivers' ability to set prices & see destinations b/c so many were cherry picking lucrative rides & turning down other requests that the service became unreliable https://www.sfchronicle.com/ ... via @sfchronicle Gig Workers Rising / @gigworkersrise : Is there a single Prop 22 promise that Uber hasn't broken? Regardless, workers know the truth. The only way to hold these corporations accountable is to continue to organize & build power with their fellow workers until Uber has no choice but to listen. So we keep organizing✊ https://twitter.com/... Sarah Stierch / @sarah_stierch : So, this is probably why Ubers have dropped off in #Sonoma. Tourism is in full swing again and it's virtually impossible to get Ubers anymore in town. Maybe one if you're lucky and you're charged $50 to go three blocks. https://www.sfchronicle.com/ ... (And our local cab company 👎) O...K / @kateconger : Uber gave drivers more control over rides to strengthen the argument that they were independent contractors, not employees. But after Prop 22, Uber is thinking about taking control back, @CSaid reports https://www.sfchronicle.com/ ... @sfchronicle : A third of California drivers declined more than 80% of their ride requests, making the service unreliable, Uber said this week. https://www.sfchronicle.com/ ... David Zipper / @davidzipper : Uber will stop letting CA drivers decline trips based on requested destination: “~1/5 of potential passengers in CA now end up not finding a ride, a 7x increase.” I wonder where those people wanted to go. Homes near airports? Low-income neighborhoods? https://www.sfchronicle.com/ ... Senior Oops / @reinh : I'd usually say something snarky but let's just quote the IRS: “The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work, not what will be done and how it will be done” https://twitter.com/... @gigwc : In case you aren't keeping track, here's how Prop22 is negatively affecting CA gig workers: 1. Less orders for Instacart and Shipt workers 2. Uber drivers can no longer see destinations - impelling drivers to accept undesirable orders 3. GrubHub replaced 20% default tip w/ $0. https://twitter.com/... Steve Smith / @ssmith_calabor : For @Uber, it was never about anything other than winning a campaign so they could cheat drivers indefinitely. They spent $220 million to do it and after they won, they've doubled down on exploitation. Disgusting https://twitter.com/... Dave Lee / @daveleeft : As part of its efforts to convince a judge its drivers were independent, Uber introduced new features. Court cases safely behind them, the company is now looking at taking them away. https://www.sfchronicle.com/ ... Matt Rosoff / @mattrosoff : REMINDER: After 12 years in business, Uber still loses billions of dollars every year. https://www.sfchronicle.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
Uber's concession comes a year into its California experiment under Prop 22, where drivers gained the right to set their own fares and preview destinations before accepting a ride — flexibilities labor groups had pushed for since their letter urging Congress to reject Uber's proposed third worker category. The company now says too many drivers cherry-picked lucrative trips, leaving the service unreliable enough that it is weighing scrapping both policies.
The timing matters because Uber enters this fight from strength: an app revamp that attracted more drivers has grown its US rideshare share from 62% in early 2020 to 74%, giving it leverage to claw back driver controls that Gig Workers Rising already frames as another broken Prop 22 promise.
First-order effects
- California drivers stand to lose fare-setting and destination previewing, reverting to opaque algorithmic dispatch where they accept or reject blind requests.
- Uber trades goodwill with organized driver groups like Gig Workers Rising for reliability it claims the policies destroyed, betting its supply cushion absorbs the backlash.
Second-order effects
- With Uber holding 74% US share after its app overhaul, Lyft faces less pressure to match driver-friendly pricing features and can instead compete on the same centralized-pricing terms Uber is restoring.
- Driver advocacy groups gain a concrete grievance to attach to broader fights over gig-work rules — the same playbook they used when Uber lobbied against Spain's employee-classification law (coverage of Uber's opposition) while insisting such rules don't break its model.
Third-order effects
- If Uber retracts these concessions without measurable business damage, expect platforms to treat driver-facing pricing transparency as reversible rather than structural, weakening the precedent Prop 22-era flexibility set for other gig markets.
- The episode sharpens the core classification argument worldwide: whoever sets prices controls the work relationship, so platforms centralizing pricing power strengthen regulators' case that drivers function as managed labor, feeding fights like the one over Spain's statute.
The trend: Gig platforms are testing how much driver autonomy granted under pressure — price-setting, destination visibility — can be rolled back once market share and algorithmic dispatch make drivers interchangeable again.