A person wearing a gas mask and construction vest opened fire on a subway train in Brooklyn, hitting 10 passengers and critically injuring five. In the wake of the shooting, fare prices quoted by rideshare companies had skyrocketed due to understandably increased demand.
Users are being quoted $70 or more to leave the neighborhood.
Josh Gold, a spokesman for the company, said that their hearts go out to the victims of the shooting.
Neither company would say how long surge pricing will be disabled. Gold told Engadget that customers would still be charged the normal, non-sur charges, but they would be able to get refunds. It is working to adjust fares for certain riders who paid prime-time prices when the situation first unfolded.
The appearance of price gouging during a tragic event is not the kind of attention either company would prefer to get, and is an inherent danger of automated systems that are unable to account for the context of a local increase in demand. This isn't the first time that rideshare companies have messed up. Surge pricing went up after a bomb in Manhattan injured dozens in 2016 and after a vehicle was deliberately driven into a crowd of pedestrians in London in 2020.
The person of interest in the shooting that took place this morning has since been released by authorities.
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