[maksimum]

> more precisely predict what riders might be willing to pay for a ride

It's weird to me that this sort of price discrimination is legal.

E.g. given this information, my incentive as a rider is to never tip (so that their algorithm doesn't identify me as "willing to pay" more). Maybe I could also make a new Lyft account every time I need a ride?

[mlyle]

> > more precisely predict what riders might be willing to pay for a ride

> It's weird to me that this sort of price discrimination is legal.

I don't interpret this as charging different customers different prices per se. But there are different prevailing conditions with different pricing justified (other than simple congested/not congested). Knowing what your service is worth to customers so you can extract a greater fraction of this is pricing 101.

[maksimum]

> I don't interpret this as charging different customers different prices per se.

Based on my experience Lyft and Uber charge different prices to different customers with identical trips. I've tested this by asking friends with who I'm about to share a ride with to request the same trip as me, and compare prices. We've observed differences of 10-20%.

> Knowing what your service is worth to customers so you can extract a greater fraction of this is pricing 101.

Where this becomes problematic is in the age of big data. When a company can build an accurate profile of me, they can extract maximum prices from me. We need laws that mandate what definition of "profile" is allowed to be used for pricing.

I'm not sure why we accept price discrimination at the individual level for airlines and Lyft/Uber. I'm pretty sure people would be outraged if Amazon started price discriminating based on your purchase history.

[ghaff]

I think that statement was about riders in the collective sense. Riders are typically willing to pay more, e.g. on New Years Eve than on a random afternoon.

But, in any case, dynamic pricing at both the individual and the collective level is pretty widespread these days. By and large--there are some exceptions--companies don't have to sell at a fixed price to all people at all times.