Beyond Riding: Passenger Engagement with Driver Labor through Gamified Interactions

Paper Title

Beyond Riding: Passenger Engagement with Driver Labor through Gamified Interactions

Publication Info

• Topic area: Gamified interventions to raise passenger awareness of ridehail driver labor conditions.
• Keywords: Ridehail services, gamification, driver-passenger interaction, labor advocacy, consumer engagement, algorithmic management, solidarity, serious games, platform labor, worker rights.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Ridehail drivers face hidden labor burdens and vulnerabilities, including low pay, algorithmic control, and psychosocial stressors, which remain largely invisible to passengers. Existing advocacy tools focus on workers but fail to mobilize consumers, who hold significant power to influence labor conditions.
• Significance: Raising passenger awareness and fostering solidarity can lead to more socially responsible consumption and advocacy for driver rights, potentially influencing platform policies and labor regulations.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has documented exploitative platform practices and attempted to empower workers through data-sharing tools and co-design efforts. However, these approaches often require significant effort from drivers, who may lack the capacity to engage. Gamification has been explored in other contexts to motivate engagement with sensitive social issues but has not been applied to passenger-facing interventions in ridehail settings.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Development of gamified in-ride interventions to engage passengers with the realities of ridehail driving, fostering understanding, empathy, and advocacy for driver labor conditions.
• Novelty:
  1. Introduction of passenger-facing games tailored to the ridehail context, leveraging gamification to surface hidden labor conditions.
  2. Use of co-design workshops with drivers and passengers to iteratively develop and refine game prototypes.
  3. Exploration of how gamified interactions can mediate driver-passenger solidarity and motivate consumer-led labor advocacy.
  4. Identification of design tradeoffs and opportunities for safe, contextualized, and engaging passenger-driver interactions.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  1. Conducted nine workshops with 19 drivers and 15 passengers to gather insights and feedback.
  2. Developed and tested four game prototypes: DRIVEN (visual novel), TRIVIA RIDE (trivia game), DRIVING QUESTIONS (conversation prompts), and TICKING ROADS (time management game).
  3. Embedded ridehail-specific concepts (e.g., pay rates, rating pressures, logistics) into game mechanics using techniques like obfuscation, intermixing, and psychological distancing.
  4. Evaluated prototypes based on playability, embeddedness of ridehail concepts, and their ability to provoke critical reflection and engagement.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • DRIVEN was most effective at provoking critical reflection but was emotionally taxing for passengers.
  • TRIVIA RIDE was lightweight and engaging but less effective at obfuscating ridehail concepts.
  • DRIVING QUESTIONS facilitated unforced conversations but had limited depth for embedding factual content.
  • TICKING ROADS effectively simulated logistical stressors but faced technical issues in early iterations.
  • Passengers showed increased awareness of driver pay rates, rating pressures, and logistical challenges after engaging with the games.
• Advantage over baselines: Unlike existing tools like Octopus tablets, these prototypes were purposefully designed to integrate ridehail-specific knowledge and foster empathy, rather than solely entertain or generate advertising revenue.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Workshops included pre- and post-interaction surveys to measure changes in passenger knowledge, empathy, and willingness to advocate for drivers.
  • Prototypes were evaluated along dimensions such as fun, replayability, ride-friendliness, and thought-provoking potential.
  • Thematic analysis of workshop transcripts identified passenger knowledge gaps and driver preferences for game design.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited sample size and US-based context may affect generalizability.
  • Emotional and cognitive demands of certain prototypes may not suit all passengers.
  • Future work should explore scalable evaluations, international contexts, and additional interactive modes (e.g., mobile apps, conversational agents).

Summary

This study explores the potential of gamified in-ride interventions to engage passengers with the hidden labor conditions of ridehail drivers. Through iterative co-design with drivers and passengers, the authors developed and tested four game prototypes that embed ridehail-specific knowledge using techniques like obfuscation and psychological distancing. Results indicate that these games can raise passenger awareness, empathy, and advocacy for driver rights, with varying levels of success across prototypes. The work highlights opportunities for designing socially responsible passenger-driver interactions and offers a foundation for future research on consumer-led labor advocacy in platform-mediated services.