Uber vs Lyft: Report seems to show dirty tactics in rideshare war
Uber drivers may be sabotaging the competition by booking and canceling rides to tie up rival Lyft drivers.
Data acquired by CNN shows Uber employees have ordered and canceled more than 5,500 rides from rival Lyft since last October. CNN says it requested the data while reporting another story about the competition between the two companies.
Lyft claims this is happening all across the county and says the data links the fake ride requests to at least 177 Uber employees.
The fake requests cost Lyft drivers money. They spend their own gas money to get to the destination only to find out they've been scammed. While responding to the fake order, the Lyft driver is off the app map meaning users needing a ride might pick an Uber driver instead.
Lyft spokeswoman Erin Simpson released this statement:
An Uber spokesperson responded with this statement:
That led to another response from Lyft, who issued this statement:
The CNN report does say this is not the first time Uber has been accused of canceling rides on a competing service. Earlier this year, Uber staffers in New York called and withdrew more than 100 ride requests with another ride-share rival. After being uncovered, Uber said in a statement that it would "tone down their sales tactics."
