“We are assisting with the investigation,” an Uber spokesperson tells News. The organization declined to offer any additional comment.
One of Hell’s main systems involved Uber building fake rider accounts on Lyft, according to a report issued in News in April. It then used those accounts as a glass into its rival service, where it observed how many Lyft operators were available in some areas at certain times. Armed with that data, Uber would fill obvious gaps in Lyft’s coverage in real time. The software got its name because of the system it mirrored Uber’s “God view,” or, following, “Heaven view,” which workers used to track the company’s individual drivers and riders.
Another part of the plan was used to distinguish drivers who used both Lyft and Uber. Uber reportedly utilized that information to target these drivers with baits to tempt them away from Lyft. The organization reportedly discontinued the use of Hell in 2016.
Earlier this year, a previous Lyft driver filed a class action lawsuit against Uber above its use of the Hell. The suit claimed that Uber’s secretive tracking program infringed various privacy and communications acts, but it was eventually dismissed last month.
The research into Hell is not the only one Uber’s newly minted CEO has to worry about. In May it was announced that the US Justice Department opened an illegal probe into the organization for its use of “Greyball,” software that enabled it to evade local regulators in cities where the corporation wasn’t licensed to operate.
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