The "no tipping" was a great precedent they set. It made their service super easy to use. Call your ride, get in, get out, leave a rating if you're pissed off (

The "no tipping" was a great precedent they set. It made their service super easy to use. Call your ride, get in, get out, leave a rating if you're pissed off (vs. spending weeks dealing with the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission). Americans want to tip so badly, the only way to prevent them from doing it is to not give them the option to (it was always possible to tip in cash, but the intention was clearly to have all interactions happen through the app). Tipping doesn't actually lead to drivers earning more money, it just leads to the price of rides dropping as the need to tip increases quantity supplied and decreases quantity demanded until prices reach a new equilibrium, at which point the drivers are still making the same amount and riders are still paying the same amount, except now riders get all stressed out about how much they should tip and drivers get all stressed out about how much their passengers are going to tip. Drivers only think tips are a good idea since most of them aren't smart enough to understand economics. Or, perhaps the Lake Wobegon effect is at play and an overwhelming majority of drivers believe they would receive more tips than average.