This is the opposite of false advertising - upfront pricing means you agreed to the price by definition. Uber is under no obligation to detail the pricing mechanism to the user.
You’re right of course, but it is in the public interest to know that it is happening. Profiling individuals for price discrimination is not popular, violating most people’s notion of fairness.
Amazon experimented with it years ago before pulling the plug after consumer outrage.
While I see what you're saying, without the details of how the pricing structure works this is basically gambling from the consumers point of view and theres a lot of harm in that.
Flight pricing works in similarly opaque fashion (I generally compare pricing between different browsers and private sessions and sometimes even devices before buying).
Flight pricing is opaque, but there is no comparison possible with Uber since that price is based on your individual profile. United doesn’t use my recent travel history and detailed personal information gleaned from data brokers before quoting me a fare class ticket.
The difference is that when I buy a plane ticket, I see the price that the company wants and then I can decide to purchase it or not. With Uber, I have to agree to pay first and then they tell me what the price is. That difference, in my mind, is the key difference to what makes riding an Uber gambling, while buying a plane ticket not.
