Boston Uber Drivers Are Twice as Likely to Cancel a Customer's Ride If They Have a Black-Sounding Name

A new study shows that Uber drivers in Boston have a pattern of prejudice against black and female customers.

The study, which was conducted by researchers at MIT, Stanford and the University of Washington, examined over 900 Boston Uber trips between November 2015 and March 2016. Researchers had students request rides using common black-sounding names and white-sounding ones. It found that drivers canceled the rides of black passengers 10.1% of time, while only canceling rides for white-sounding riders at a rate of 4.9%. The numbers were even more astounding in low-density areas, where customers with black-sounding names had their rides canceled three times as often.

The study also found that Boston's women are being taken for longer, more expensive rides than men, even if they are traveling the same distance.

Although researchers did not uncover the same pattern with Lyft drivers, they have a theory why: Lyft drivers see a customer's name before they accept a ride, whereas Uber drivers only see the passenger's face and name after they accept a trip. In other words, Lyft drivers could be discriminating just as often, but there's no data on whether or not they are.

Researchers also looked at hundreds of Uber and Lyft rides in Seattle and determined that, "African-American travelers in Seattle experienced statistically significantly longer delay waiting for a trip request through UberX or Lyft to be accepted."

Read the entire study at the National Bureau of Economic Research's website.