Uber fine per word

Yesterday was a travel-heavy day. Most of my family now resides on the East Coast, which means it can take multiple flights to see them. Thankfully, we can fly on a non-budget airline, which means there’s a bit more legroom and space between myself and the next passenger.

This does not mean we fly private or have a driver. It’s fine, though especially noticeable when paired with a chatty Uber driver after an exhausting day of travel. Typically I enjoy conversation with whoever is driving me, but it’s a bit much to field the question, “so what do you think about AI?” when you have 1 minute remaining on your trip and you’ve been in a metal container hurtling home for the past 8 hours.

This got me thinking about Uber’s pricing model. What if there was a way to incentivize quiet? You could pay a premium for a quiet ride, and your driver pays a small fee for every word spoken. This would (theoretically) incentivize a more peaceful trip, though I think some riders would still want to chat.

I can see why Uber doesn’t do this, but if they launched this I could see it being immensely popular.

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