Not an Uber fan but this just seems like price discrimination with better data, which in principle could subsidize rides for poorer drivers. Student rush tickets to the opera could be framed as price gouging of non-students (by probing into their personal lives, no less). But in reality more students get to go to the opera this way. Hard to judge without knowing the tradeoffs.
>which in principle could subsidize rides for poorer drivers.
I don't think you can specify this. In principle this could subsidize rides for some people or it could increase profit and even if the money were put towards subsidizing rides there is no guarantee it's going to subsidize rides for the poor, there is no law that says the poor are going to receive these subsidies - frequently they don't because they don't because they're a lower priority for the company due to their decreased spending power, have less information about the marketplace and are less able to substitute between alternatives.
