Mistake

I wrote about an MIT study of Uber and Lyft and the low income of their drivers. It turns out the study was wrong, and its author has publicly admitted it. He is now in the process of recalculating his work. The two companies promptly rebutted his research because it was a PR threat to them. Well they should have. The problem was an ambiguous survey question. It is difficult to write clear questionnaires and the researcher proved once again that even experts have problems. The paper will go back to the academic mill and might be reported out in a few weeks or months. By then its impact will be mitigated. The lesson here is that PR challenges come from anywhere and need immediate and factual response.