DoorDash CEO responds to online rumors about drivers’ ‘desperation score’
- DoorDash CEO Tony Xu strongly condemned a viral Reddit post that alleged a major food delivery app used a 'Desperation Score' to pay drivers based on their perceived need for work.
- Xu reposted a screenshot of the Reddit claims on X, emphatically denying that such practices, including treating drivers as 'human assets' or having a 'Driver Benefit Fee' for lobbying, were part of DoorDash's operations.
- The Reddit post, which did not name DoorDash, was later debunked as a hoax by tech site Platformer, revealing the author used AI-generated evidence and declined to provide corroboration.
- Despite the debunking, the allegations, which included claims that 'priority delivery' was a scam, had already spread widely, prompting Xu and DoorDash to issue public denials.
- The article notes that while DoorDash denied these specific allegations, the company previously paid almost $17 million to settle claims in New York for unfairly using customer tips to subsidise delivery worker wages between 2017 and 2019.