Safety Narratives and Automation Discourse as Labor Discipline in the Rideshare Economy

• In Event: Science, Knowledge & Technology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Knowledge Production in the Age of AI

Abstract

After Uber released safety reports documenting sexual assault complaints, major news outlets including The New York Times highlighted stories of passengers attacked by drivers. But discussions among drivers suggest that violence in the gig economy is not one-sided. For this research project, I collected Reddit posts from rideshare drivers that complicate dominant media narratives of drivers as the primary assailants in violent interactions. Posts detailed harassment, unwanted sexual advances, and threats from passengers and insufficient support from Uber and Lyft to address harms. This project foregrounds the perspectives of drivers and the challenge they pose to safety narratives propounded by the media and asks: what does it mean that these narratives are being deployed during a period of incomplete but slowly advancing automation, in which technology companies themselves increasingly promote autonomous vehicles as a safer alternative to human drivers? I argue that media safety narratives and tech company-driven automation discourse reinforce each other, positioning drivers as replaceable and legitimizing their eventual replacement, even as the industry continues to depend on their labor.

Author

• Camille McGinnis, Howard University