Uber said a bug caused its app to drive down payouts to ride-hailing drivers on some trips.
The fare discrepancies happened on Trip Radar, a feature that Uber introduced four years ago that offers a gig to multiple drivers at once, often as they’re finishing up another ride. Since they’re competing with other drivers to claim the trip, it’s common for drivers to accept a ride but not get it because someone else accepted it sooner.
In the last month or so, three drivers told Business Insider they have started getting a follow-up offer: the same trip with the same route they previously accepted, but at a lower rate.
On X, a driver posted screenshots from one such trip. Uber initially offered the driver $12.53 for a ride of just under six miles — then the offer fell to $11.60 on the second offer.
Here we go again. Since the rideshare apps won’t provide an explanation for this ongoing algorithmic wage and labor exploitation of gig workers — and refuse to stop — maybe it’s time to bring these things to the attention of the Massachusetts AG’s office? pic.twitter.com/lkSO09FLv3
— matt (@boston_drives) January 21, 2026
Another offer that the driver posted last week shows a payout of $11.45 for a 5.5-mile trip. After the driver accepted the trip, the app showed it was no longer available, then offered him the same trip for $8.84.
On February 7, Uber Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal replied to the driver’s post, saying that it wasn’t “a fair or acceptable experience.”
“It’s not deliberate — we identified a bug causing some fare discrepancies, e.g., when a rider cancels and then quickly re-requests the same trip,” Kansal wrote.
An Uber spokesperson confirmed the details in Kansal’s post. “We’ve already begun rolling out fixes that prevent almost-identical trips like this from being re-priced for the same driver,” the spokesperson said. “We’re also continuing to monitor fare offers closely.”
While the difference between offers might be a dollar or two, gig workers said the gap can add up, especially given that many have seen their pay decrease in recent years.
One Uber driver in Massachusetts said he started receiving duplicative offers over the past month and accepted some, though the payout was lower and the map showed it was the same route.
The double offers didn’t happen on every trip, he said, but none offered to pay him more the second time.
“I’d hit ‘match,’ and then it would say that the trip was taken,” the driver said. “Shortly thereafter, I’d get an exclusive offer with a lower price for the same trip.”
Sergio Avedian, an Uber driver and senior contributor to the gig-driver-advocacy blog and YouTube channel The Rideshare Guy, said that Uber often serves drivers offers through Trip Radar as they are finishing up a ride. The app gives drivers 10 seconds to accept the trip or lose it, meaning drivers don’t always have time to evaluate the offer, he said.
Kansal’s response on X represents a rare instance in which Uber’s C-suite publicly acknowledged a problem to a driver, Avedian said, adding that the user tagged some government agencies in one of his posts.
The executive’s reply suggests Uber is taking the issue seriously.
After all, Avedian said, even if the bug affected a small portion of the millions of rides completed each day on Uber, it could equal big money.
“Pennies add up,” he said.
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