The entire purpose of surge pricing is to ensure that there is always a care when you want one. The purpose is not profit maximization, but ensuring there will

The entire purpose of surge pricing is to ensure that there is always a care when you want one. The purpose is not profit maximization, but ensuring there will never be a time that I go to Uber, request a vehicle, and not have one appear within a reasonable period of time. If Surge pricing is working then there should be a large number of empty cars waiting for rides. Those cars are incentivized to show up by getting paid more than they normally would for a ride of the same distance.