Uber is facing serious legal action for alleged indirect racial discrimination against a driver who claims he was fired after the facial recognition software used by the company failed to recognize him and therefore was unable to perform his job.
Face identification problems
In a legal appeal before a labor court filed just a few days ago, the driver of the famous vehicle company VTC, who asked not to be identified, alleged that Uber’s British subsidiary deactivated his account after not recognizing him in two separate photographs, leaving him unable to work.
The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which filed the appeal on behalf of the driver, assured that it had been able to verify at least 35 similar dismissals among its members since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, almost two years ago, and warned that “hundreds, if not thousands more drivers” could be affected.
Everything is in the hands of the algorithm
The union has been asking Uber for several months now to stop using its “racist algorithm” and reinstate drivers unfairly fired as a result of alleged software bugs. In a statement, Uber said its facial recognition software was “designed to protect the safety of everyone who uses the Uber app by helping to ensure that the correct driver is behind the wheel.”
In addition, the company ruled that the system includes “a solid human review to ensure that this algorithm does not make hasty and erroneous decisions and leaves drivers unidentified, as has been the case of the advertiser. In the labor court appeal the driver, who worked for Uber from 2016 until he was fired last April, alleges that he was never offered the option of a manual verification of the photos that proved it was him, but that everything was left in the hands of the Uber algorithm.
Uber has used real-time identity verification in the UK since April 2020, after London’s transport regulator TfL raised concerns about the safety of the company’s passengers. The software created by Microsoft works by comparing a selfie taken by the driver when he starts working with a photo that the company has on file. It says that all drivers can opt for automated checks through an algorithm or manual checks carried out by humans.
On its website, Uber states that in the event that real-time identity verification cannot verify a driver’s photo, both images will be sent to a “team of specialists” who will manually verify the identity of said driver.
Are algorithms racist?
Racial bias has long been an issue highlighted by studies of facial recognition technologies. In a 2018 study conducted by two scientists, facial recognition technologies were found to work best with fair skin.
