California Moves to Stop Uber and Lyft from Price Gouging Riders with Low Phone Batteries
📷 Image source: gizmodo.com
The Battery Tax
How ride-hail apps exploit your dying phone
Imagine this: You’re stranded downtown, your phone’s at 5%, and you desperately need a ride home. You open Uber or Lyft, and suddenly, the fare is double what it should be. Coincidence? Not according to California lawmakers, who are now pushing to ban what critics call the 'low-battery surge.'
A bill winding through the state legislature aims to stop ride-hail companies from using your phone’s battery level—or any other 'non-transparent' data—to jack up prices. It’s a direct response to growing suspicions that apps manipulate fares based on how vulnerable you are. And if it passes, California would be the first state to slam the door on a practice that feels predatory, even by Silicon Valley standards.
The Algorithm Knows You’re Desperate
Data as a weapon
Uber and Lyft have long argued that their pricing is purely supply-and-demand. But researchers and whistleblowers have hinted for years that it’s more nuanced—and more invasive. A 2016 study found Uber charging higher prices to users with low batteries. In 2021, a Lyft engineer testified in court that the company considered using phone charge levels to adjust fares.
Now, California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) is calling their bluff. Her bill, AB 3069, would force ride-hail apps to disclose exactly what data they use to set prices—and ban any 'unfair' manipulation. 'Consumers deserve to know if they’re being penalized for something as arbitrary as their battery percentage,' Wicks told Gizmodo. 'This isn’t dynamic pricing. It’s digital extortion.'
Why This Matters Beyond California
A test case for the surveillance economy
The fight over battery-based pricing isn’t just about ride-hail apps. It’s part of a much bigger battle over how companies use personal data to exploit consumers. From airlines hiking prices if you’re browsing on an iPhone to hotels tracking your cursor movements to gauge urgency, the playbook is the same: The more they know about your state of mind, the more they can charge.
California’s bill could set a precedent for reining in these practices. If it passes, other states—or even Congress—might follow. And for Uber and Lyft, which are already under fire for driver wages and safety issues, it’s another PR nightmare. Both companies insist they don’t use battery data for pricing (Lyft says it 'does not engage in the practice,' while Uber calls the allegations 'unfounded'). But critics aren’t buying it. 'If they’re not doing it, why not just agree to the ban?' asks Veena Dubal, a UC Hastings law professor who studies gig work. 'Unless they’re keeping the option open.'
What Happens Next
The bill cleared its first committee in April with bipartisan support—a rarity in California’s divided legislature. But the ride-hail giants are lobbying hard against it, and the tech industry’s allies are warning about 'overregulation.' Still, with public trust in Big Tech at an all-time low, the momentum favors reformers.
If AB 3069 becomes law, it could force Uber and Lyft to rewrite their pricing algorithms entirely. More importantly, it might finally pull back the curtain on how much these companies really know about us—and how they use that knowledge to turn a profit. Because in the end, this isn’t just about a dying phone battery. It’s about who controls the rules of the digital marketplace: corporations, or the people they’re supposed to serve.
#Uber #Lyft #California #PriceGouging #TechRegulation
