With the estimated rate, the product sold to the customer is the trip, not the time/mileage. As the driver is a contractor and not an employee of uber, they are an intermediary in the transaction. They are reselling the trip for me for a significant cut. If they sell it for more and don't give me my fair cut, that's theft.
In any case, technically everyone is getting screwed and they likely end up sharing whatever the markup is. (Driver loses wages, user pays more).
it's not theft. The driver contract says you get paid back for the time and mileage that you incur, NOT "whatever the customer gets paid". Besides, if the trip goes over the amount that the customer pays (beacause, say, for traffic, or an unmarked road closure) then uber pays out the full amount to the driver for the actual time/mileage incurred.
let's say that Uber posted really unreasonably fast times for the given route instead. Would you then argue that uber could systematically pay the drivers a lower rate, because that's the fare they pitched to the passenger?
In any case, technically everyone is getting screwed and they likely end up sharing whatever the markup is. (Driver loses wages, user pays more).