GigU’s ‘Cherry Picker’ Game Simulates Being a Gig Work Driver

A new game aims to simulate a struggle many gig workers face: Picking which jobs to take in order to make enough money to pay the bills.

“Cherry Picker,” a game developed by ride-hailing pay analysis app GigU, will launch in a free browser version on Wednesday, the company told Business Insider. GigU makes an app that helps Uber drivers determine whether the rides they’re offered will be profitable for them.

The premise of the game is simple: Each day — one round in the game — the game’s main character, Charles, has to turn a profit of $200 as a ride-hailing driver to cover his bills.

The game is meant to show people how challenging making money as a gig worker can be. Perhaps, it’ll get riders to empathize with their next Uber or Lyft driver, Pedro Inada, co-CEO of GigU, told Business Insider.

“It’s very important that the riders know what the day in the life of a driver is,” Inada said.

GigU launched its paid app for drivers in the US in May. It’s one of a few third-party apps that says it helps gig workers parse ride and delivery offers to determine which are the best use of their time.

Uber has said that such apps violate its terms of service. Lyft has gone further, suggesting that it could deactivate the accounts of gig workers found to be using the apps.

In the game, players are shown a series of ride-hailing trips, including total pay, the distance of the trip, how far they’d have to drive to pick up the passenger, and how long the gig would take to complete.

A tutorial at the start advises players that their costs, such as fuel, come out to 75 cents a mile, so any trips that they accept will need to gross more than that. Players also have eight hours of driving time in which to make their $200 profit.

Players have five seconds to evaluate each trip and, like a dating app, either swipe right to take it or left to reject it. While some trips are clear winners — such as one that pays almost $26 for 15 minutes of work and a few miles of driving — others require a closer analysis.

Inada said that he hopes players who regularly take trips through apps like Uber and Lyft gain respect for the decisions that drivers have to make by playing “Cherry Picker.”

“You won’t be able to win the game if you just accept everything, and that’s real life,” he said.

The game took less than a month to create and was “vibe-coded” by GigU’s marketing team using ChatGPT and Replit, Inada said. The company launched an initial version of the game in Brazil, where it also operates an app for gig workers, and attracted 300,000 players.

The game’s main character, including the name “Charles,” is an homage to early film star Charlie Chaplin. Inada said that he was inspired by “Modern Times,” a 1936 film that starred Chaplin as a worker on a factory assembly line during the Industrial Revolution. Ultimately, Chaplin has a nervous breakdown due to the stress of his work.

For Inada, there are parallels between the Industrial Revolution and gig work, he told Business Insider.

“If Charles Chaplin was alive today, ‘Modern Times’ would probably be about gig workers,” he said.

Do you have a story to share about ride-hailing or the gig economy? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or 808-854-4501.