Memorandum on Rider Call Anticipation
The app showed the driver two minutes away. The rider stepped outside. The driver was seven minutes away. The two-minute estimate had been produced at the moment of dispatch.
Transcript of Proceedings: Rider Call Anticipation Review Informal Hearing, Remote
CHAIR: Thank you for appearing. Can you describe what occurred?
WITNESS: I requested a ride. The app confirmed a driver had been assigned. The estimated arrival time showed two minutes. I put on my shoes and went downstairs.
CHAIR: And the driver arrived in two minutes?
WITNESS: The driver arrived in nine minutes.
CHAIR: Can you account for the discrepancy?
WITNESS: The estimate was produced at the moment of dispatch, based on the driver's location at that moment. Between dispatch and arrival, the driver encountered traffic. The estimate did not update to reflect the traffic.
CHAIR: Is the estimate supposed to update?
WITNESS: The app displays a map showing the driver's position, which updates in real time. The numeric estimate adjacent to the map does not update at the same frequency. The map showed the driver not moving. The estimate continued to show two minutes for approximately four minutes.
CHAIR: What is the consequence of this?
WITNESS: A person who steps outside based on a two-minute estimate and waits nine minutes has spent seven additional minutes on a sidewalk that they could have spent indoors. This is not a significant individual harm. At scale, across a population of riders making similar estimates across similar gaps, it represents a substantial aggregate of unnecessary sidewalk time.
CHAIR: Is there a formal concern?
WITNESS: The concern is structural. The estimate is produced at the moment it is least useful, by a system that does not update it at the moments when it would be most useful. A person deciding when to leave their building does not need to know where the driver was seven minutes ago. They need to know where the driver is now and how long they will take to arrive from that position.
CHAIR: Is this technically addressable?
WITNESS: Yes.
CHAIR: Has it been addressed?
WITNESS: No.
CHAIR: What is your recommendation?
WITNESS: A person who has stood on a sidewalk for nine minutes waiting for a driver shown as two minutes away has experienced the full range of what the estimate can do. My recommendation is that the estimate be updated at least every sixty seconds using the driver's current position and current traffic conditions.
CHAIR: Thank you. Is there anything you would like to add?
WITNESS: The driver was very apologetic. The driver had no control over the traffic or the estimate. The estimate is a product of the system.
CHAIR: Noted. The hearing is adjourned.