On the morning of August 12 2020, the day he decided to fight the Uber Eats algorithm, Armin Samii woke earlier than usual. He dressed, made coffee and sat down at his computer where he remained for the next 16 hours, coding a web application and filming videos to show other couriers how to use it. He called it UberCheats, published it online at midnight and made it free to use.

UberCheats was an algorithm-auditing tool. Samii, who was working as a cycle courier for Uber in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the time, had lost trust in the automated system that essentially functioned as his boss. He had become convinced the Uber Eats app was consistently making errors and underpaying him. After weeks of trying and failing to get a human being at Uber to explain, he felt he had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

Samii’s app performed a simple, yet crucial function. UberCheats was able to extract GPS coordinates from receipts and calculate how many miles a courier had actually travelled, compared to the distance Uber claimed they had. There is no set rate for Uber couriers since the platform prices jobs dynamically. Pricing can change by the hour, between different geographies and individuals. It is affected by everything from surges in demand to the weather. Because, at the time, Uber generally hid exact delivery locations from couriers after they’d completed their trips, it was hard for them to confirm how far they’d gone. When a courier received a receipt, all they saw was an anonymised route from A to B, alongside the number of miles and what they were paid. This meant delivery workers had no way to double-check any discrepancies.