DoorDash Filed a Patent to Spot Frustration From Scrolling and Battery Level
The patent would have tied the score to promotions, and it was withdrawn after a congressional hearing.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von · #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay OwensDoorDash filed a patent for a 16-factor agitation score that, as consumer advocate Lindsay Owens described it, weighed how fast and how jerkily a person scrolled, along with how low the phone battery was.
Owens speculated the thinking might be that a dying battery means you have to get the order in now, so you might pay more to do it. She said the patent would have linked the score to the promotions different users saw, including whether they got a discount.
Owens described the patent in testimony before Senator Josh Hawley this summer. A few days later, she said, DoorDash quietly withdrew it.
Questions people ask
Did DoorDash actually use the agitation score on customers?
No. The source describes only a patent filing, not use in the app. Owens said DoorDash quietly withdrew the patent a few days after she discussed it at the hearing.
Why would battery level matter?
That was Owens speculating, not language quoted from the patent. She guessed that a nearly dead battery means a customer has to order right away. The patent itself described scoring agitation from device and past data.
Is there a way to avoid this kind of scoring?
The source offers no tested way to avoid this kind of scoring.