DoorDash boss Tony Xu unleashed an expletive-laden denial to a viral Reddit post accusing an unnamed food delivery app of barbaric practices – including a “desperation score” to determine how much it pays delivery workers.
The bombshell claims were floated by an anonymous Reddit user who claimed to be a fed-up “developer for a major food delivery app” who was posting “on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA.”
The “developer” alleged that the app was constantly scheming ways to wring more profits out of its drivers, who are purportedly referred to as “human assets” in internal meetings.
“The thing that actually makes me sick – and the main reason I’m quitting – is the ‘Desperation Score,’” the Reddit user wrote. “We have a hidden metric for drivers that tracks how desperate they are for cash based on their acceptance behavior.”
The identity of the Reddit user has not been verified, prompting some online speculation about whether the post was authentic or even potentially AI-generated.
Nevertheless, it spread like wildfire on social media and forced a response from Doordash’s Xu – who fired back at an X user who shared a screenshot of the Reddit post with the caption “holy f—king s—t.”
“Holy f—king s—it is right!” Xu wrote in an X post. “This is not DoorDash, and I would fire anyone who promoted or tolerated the kind of culture described in this Reddit post. There’s so much wrong with this post.”
“What’s described here is appalling, and if true, whoever is operating in this manner should be ashamed,” Xu added.
The developer also claimed that “priority delivery” features in the food deliver app were a “total scam” that “does nothing to speed you up,” and that the “benefit fee” charged to customers actually goes “straight to a corporate slush fund used to lobby against driver unions.”
Elsewhere, the app allegedly uses algorithms to lower the base pay for drivers on orders where the customer is likely to be a high tipper.
“The result is that your generosity isn’t rewarding the driver; it’s subsidizing us,” the Reddit user wrote. “You’re paying their wage so we don’t have to.”
When reached for comment, a DoorDash spokesperson said the company “does not use and has not used these features, including the desperation score, and our comments are about our company and our company alone.”
DoorDash also put out a blog post with a longer denial of the post’s “horrible claims.” Specifically, the company denied that it has ever referred to drivers as “human assets,” that priority delivery was a scam,” or that it uses a “driver benefit fee” to fund lobbying against driver unions.
The food delivery firm also rejected the claim that drivers earn less pay if customers are determined to be high tippers.
“We do not—and would never—use something like a ‘Desperation Score.’ Period,” Doordash said in the blog post.
“This is a horrific term, and an even more horrific of a concept,” the company added. “We are not tracking how much cash Dashers have and determining pay based on that. This is not what we do, or even how we think about how Dashers earn.”
The controversy surfaced during a period of unprecedented scrutiny on Capitol Hill over algorithm-based business practices.
Last month, a bombshell report alleged that food delivery service Instacart charged hundreds of customers widely different prices at chains including Target, Kroger, Safeway, Albertsons and Costco.
That prompted a wave of Congressional scrutiny, with some lawmakers mulling legislation cracking down on algorithms, as The Post reported.
