Dara Khosrowshahi seemed shocked when he learned that the journalist interviewing him had paid $51.69 including the tip to travel 2.95 miles to meet the CEO of ridesharing giant Uber.

Uber posted its first-ever operating profit in the second quarter of 2023 after years of losses.

“Oh my God. Wow,” Khosrowshahi said when he learned of the high fare for the short ride taken in May by Wired editor-at-large Steven Levy. 

Levy interviewed Khosrowshahi at Uber’s annual product event Go-Get and asked him to guess the cost of the trip.

“Twenty bucks,” Khosrowshahi said.

Aside from surge pricing on Uber rides — imposed when the demand for rides exceeds the supply of drivers and cars available — inflation is helping the company’s profits.

In the past, Khosrowshahi blamed skyrocketing prices on a shortage of drivers during the pandemic.

However, Uber ended 2022 with a record 5.4 million drivers and delivery workers. Driver supply was up 35 percent, and new drivers up 34 percent, Khosrowshahi said on a Feb. 8 conference call with analysts and investors. About 70 percent of Uber drivers polled said they considered inflation in their decision to sign up so “they can afford to live in what has been an inflationary world,” Khosrowshahi said “(W)e certainly think that the economic environment could be a tailwind there.”

Q2 of 2023 saw solid growth in Uber rides and food delivery with the number of rides exceeding prepandemic levels for the first time and demand for delivery strong despite restaurant reopenings, Wall Street Journal reported.

It’s the first time Uber has reported a profit since it was founded in 2009.

“For most of our history, profitable wasn’t the first thing that came up when you asked someone about Uber,” Khosrowshahi said Tuesday on a call with analysts. “In fact, many observers over the years boldly claimed that we would never make any money…But we knew they were wrong.”

Khosrowshahi blamed the journalist’s $51.69 ride fee on surge pricing and inflation, which he said pushed up rates along with the cost of time and labor, Levy wrote.

However, Uber’s U.S. prices have increased at four times the rate of inflation from 2018 to 2022, Forbes reported. Uber fares rose 83 percent over almost four years ending in Q3 of 2022, according to Forbes.

Part of Uber’s massive growth comes from higher prices for rides and food delivery. In other words, Uber is shifting costs to consumers — something the company has long signaled would happen, Yahoo reported.

InDrive, a new entry into the U.S. rideshare market, made its debut in South Florida in July with a new rideshare business model. Unlike Uber’s traditional pricing structure, InDrive allows users to bid on rides. InDrive is already active in 48 countries.

InDrive is holding off on charging drivers a commission until January 2024, meaning the drivers will take home up to 100 percent of each fare. InDrive’s usual fee is around 10 percent of each ride while Uber and Lyft take 25 percent, Techcrunch reported.