If you would like to listen to an entertaining version of the paper, here it is: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/uber-economists-dream/
Inelastic demand translates into large consumer surplus estimates: roughly $2.88 billion dollars in 2015 for the four cities in our sample, or $6.76 billion if extrapolated to all UberX trips in the U.S. for that year. This estimate of consumer surplus is two times larger than the revenues received by driver-partners and six times greater than the revenue captured by Uber after the driver-partner’s share is removed.
This certainly puts a different spin on accusations of price gouging with surge fees.
(Note: I have no affiliation to Uber, though I am a big fan of the service)
That's particularly the case when you consider that consumer surplus is also Uber's competitive moat against potential new entrants to the market that couldn't compete with Uber on price; as the paper's author's point out it's a short run consumer surplus and the long run demand elasticity is likely to be much lower.