“Teens get a month of free rides when they fail their driver’s test” says Uber in a blog post linked from a push notification sent out Wednesday afternoon, kind of incentivizing failure.
Of course the details of the promo are quite a bit short of “a month” of free rides: “If your teen fails their driver’s test this summer, Uber teen accounts has them covered with one month of free rides (up to 6 rides, max $20 per ride, while supplies last). Terms apply” and those terms being “Expires the earlier of 7/18/2025 or until all offers have been redeemed. Max discount of $20 per ride on up to 6 Teen rides, per Teen account. Discount expires 30 days from account application. This promotion is valid only for Teen users who have never taken a ride or ordered with Uber and/or have an existing Uber teen account and have not previously redeemed this offer. Offer does not apply to rides requested by an adult on the teen’s behalf,” and blah blah blah you already got the point.
Still, $120 of free Uber rides is very far from nothing to a middle class 17 year-old and if it’s not incentivizing failure it’s definitely incentivizing false reporting of failure. Of course Uber might have better resources than other companies to figure out whether or not a failed driver’s test is real or not but you should still be bullish about the kids’ chances. Plenty are going to take Uber for a ride.