Uber Founder Finally Admits What Tipping Was Really Built To Do — Manipulate Riders and Drivers Alike [Roundup]

News and notes from around the interweb:

• Uber’s founder on how in-app tipping is designed to cheat both the driver and the customer – and once one app player does it, anyone that doesn’t will lose out. Kalanick, of course, was famously against tipping, since the whole value proposition of Uber was the elimination of frictions.

  [I]t’s a tool for maximizing price paid by consumers… eaters are economically irrational with tip, for every $1 in tip, they economically behave as if it were $0.80 (directionally true but hypothetical figure) … this means less price elasticity for the same price… couriers are also economically irrational with tip, for every $1 in tip they economically behave as if it were $1.20 (directional)…

  The app that decides to pay the same net amount to the courier but as a square deal vs a drop fee + tip will lose market share every day to an equal marketplace player that implements and maximizes tip

  Delivery app tipping isn’t about feedback mechanisms.. it’s a tool for maximizing price paid by consumers… eaters are economically irrational with tip, for every $1 in tip, they economically behave as if it were $0.80 (directionally true but hypothetical figure) … this means…

  — travis kalanick (@travisk) November 19, 2025

• Cool.

  Close up pic.twitter.com/gMH0lCYKsU

  — Fahad Naim (@Fahadnaimb) November 21, 2025

• With LAX terminal 5 shut down for construction, the temporary American Airlines lounge in the Bradley international terminal gets good reviews, for what it is.

  Temporary Admirals Club at LAX TBIT
  byu/silvs1 inamericanairlines

• They used to call this “CleanPlus”

  @united just boarded. Here’s a picture of the “cleaning” that was done from the previous flight. Not OK pic.twitter.com/KamdXX9IQI

  — Umair Saeed (@umairsd) November 22, 2025

• I’m an aisle guy, but window seats can be special:

  @christiannielsenmedia Once in a lifetime? Probably. On the night between November 11th and 12th, I was flying home from Iceland just as multiple solar flares had hit Earths atmosphere causing a “severe geomagnetic storm” (source: Space.com). I feel very lucky. Peak aurora year. Peak aurora month. Window seat facing north. I usually share my then & now photos, but this was too extraordinary not to share… #aurura #northernlights #iceland #auroraborealis ♬ original sound – Christian H. Nielsen

• A passenger was cold on a 45-minute flight, so they asked a flight attendant for their jacket. That would be service, wouldn’t it? At least if they’d offered. But I can’t imagine asking!

  @elizabethdarbe imagine how tired we are #flightattendant ♬ original sound – liz darbe ✈️ flight attendant

• Bring your own hard boiled eggs on a plane, yea or nay? Surely this is much worse.

  @elizabethdarbe imagine how tired we are #flightattendant ♬ original sound – liz darbe ✈️ flight attendant