From 5db0737c3f6e14edbe989e99846e8cb4bf6baad8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: tomi Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2024 11:41:50 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Add content/story/smartphonetrees.md --- content/story/smartphonetrees.md | 7 +++++++ 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/story/smartphonetrees.md diff --git a/content/story/smartphonetrees.md b/content/story/smartphonetrees.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f64d940 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/story/smartphonetrees.md @@ -0,0 +1,7 @@ ++++ +title = "Smartphone Trees" ++++ + +*First heard on the net in 2020. Brought to bonfires in Berlin and Orléans 2024.* + +In 2020, passers-by in a suburb of ███████ saw a bunch of old smartphones hanging from the tallest branches of the trees surrounding a Whole Foods store. Among delivery drivers competing for orders, the word had spread that placing a phone as close as possible to the stations where deliveries originated would enable them to gain a split-second advantage over other drivers. The plot involved syncing those phones with their actual working phones, and combining this with a software monitoring Amazon’s dispatch network, to be allocated more gigs. In a few cases, some drivers would place multiple phones in a tree and then hand out delivery requests to other drivers for a cut of the proceeds. A 2020 report mentioned that it was mostly a coordinated effort by desperate gig workers whose other jobs, for example as Uber drivers, had dried up because of the pandemic lockdowns. \ No newline at end of file