Uber Inc. has apologized for implementing surge pricing during the Sydney terror attack December 15th.

The company was unfairly attacked by the mainstream media and the uninformed on social media when its algorithms automatically increased the cost of booking a car due to an increase in demand.

“The events of last week were upsetting for the whole community and we are truly sorry for any concern that our process may have added,” Uber said in a statement.

“Our priority was to help people out of the CBD safely in the midst of a fast-moving event. The decisions we made were based only on helping to achieve this but we communicated this poorly, leading to a lot of misunderstanding about our motivations.”

Uber explained that “surge pricing is algorithmic and kicks in automatically when demand for rides outstrips the supply of cars that are on the road. This encourages more drivers to the area where people are requesting rides. An increasing number of people were requesting rides that morning and surge pricing kicked in automatically…”

The company said that they got it wrong: “We didn’t stop surge pricing immediately. This was the wrong decision” but noted that “it’s unfortunate that the perception is that Uber did something against the interests of the public. We certainly did not intend to. We will learn from this incident and improve as a result of this lesson.”

Uber concluded in saying that they had listened to feedback and were working to standardize a global policy to ensure it could be efficient, effective and helpful as possible at all times.