DoorDash CEO responds to viral Reddit post on driver pay | Latest Tech News
DoorDash boss Tony Xu unleashed an expletive-laden denial to a viral Reddit post accusing an unnamed food supply app of barbaric practices – including a “desperation score” to decide how a lot it pays supply employees.
The bombshell claims had been floated by an nameless Reddit consumer 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 always scheming methods to wring more income out of its drivers, who are purportedly referred to as “human assets” in inner conferences.
Tony Xu, co-founder and chief government officer of DoorDash Inc., during an unveiling event at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025 Bloomberg via Getty Images
“The thing that actually makes me sick – and the main reason I’m quitting – is the ‘Desperation Score,’” the Reddit consumer wrote. “We have a hidden metric for drivers that tracks how desperate they are for cash based on their acceptance behavior.”
The id of the Reddit consumer has not been verified, prompting some online hypothesis about whether or not the post was genuine or even doubtlessly AI-generated.
Nevertheless, it unfold like wildfire on social media and pressured a response from Doordash’s Xu – who fired back at an X consumer 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.”
DoorDash said it has never used a desperation rating. Christopher Sadowski
“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” options in the food ship app had been a “total scam” that “does nothing to speed you up,” and that the “benefit fee” charged to clients really goes “straight to a corporate slush fund used to lobby against driver unions.”
Elsewhere, the app allegedly makes use of algorithms to decrease the bottom pay for drivers on orders where the shopper is probably going to be a high tipper.
“The result is that your generosity isn’t rewarding the driver; it’s subsidizing us,” the Reddit consumer wrote. “You’re paying their wage so we don’t have to.”
Tony Xu responded with an expletive-laden rant.
When reached for remark, 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 weblog 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 precedence supply was a rip-off,” or that it makes use of a “driver benefit fee” to fund lobbying against driver unions.
The food supply firm also rejected the declare that drivers earn less pay if clients are decided to be high tippers.
“We do not—and would never—use something like a ‘Desperation Score.’ Period,” Doordash said in the weblog post.
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“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 supply service Instacart charged lots of of clients widely different costs at chains including Target, Kroger, Safeway, Albertsons and Costco.
That prompted a wave of Congressional scrutiny, with some lawmakers mulling laws cracking down on algorithms, as The Post reported.
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