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I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver

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Re: I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver

#2
I've had only awesome experiences as an Uber rider (in the Boston area and Bay Area) and all the drivers I talked to seem pretty happy (especially ex-taxi drivers). I agree the software is a bit shotty, but I'd bet they are aware of and working out all the kinks.

Re: I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver

#4

> Having accepted a rider, the driver has no idea of the destination. Only if you don't enter your destination in the app, which you can totally do.

Yep, every time I get in an Uber the driver already knows where I'm going - although they apparently don't know until after they've accepted the ride.

Re: I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver

#6
post #2

I've had only awesome experiences as an Uber rider (in the Boston area and Bay Area) and all the drivers I talked to seem pretty happy (especially ex-taxi drivers). I agree the software is a bit shotty, but I'd bet they are aware of and working out all the kinks.

My understanding is that Uber drivers are always happy about being uber drivers when talking to customers because there is a "secret shopper" program that considers complaining about the company to be a bad thing.

Re: I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver

#7
I'm not so sure about the "lousy GPS". In an UberX ride I had the other week, the driver & I were joking about how dodgy GPS can be, and we both agreed to ignore its suggestions... Uber was suggesting we take a tunnel that would take us away from our destination, and it's a tunnel no regular taxi driver has ever used with me when driving to that destination before.

Well, after dealing with evening crowds & inner city construction work that night, we had to take a number of detours to get to the destination. And near the end of our lengthy detour, there was that tunnel that we'd opted not to take. We probably would have saved 10 minutes. The driver immediately apologized: "Maybe the Uber GPS was right after all."

Re: I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver

#8
I've used Uber since they showed up in Seattle, and was a big proponent of it. Lately, I've been seeing a lot of issues with the estimated eta being off by 20 minutes or so, which has led me to start using other services (Lyft, sidecar, & crown car), all of which seem to do a better job of giving me an ETA which is within a couple of minutes of them showing up.

Re: I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver

#9

I'm not so sure about the "lousy GPS". In an UberX ride I had the other week, the driver & I were joking about how dodgy GPS can be, and we both agreed to ignore its suggestions... Uber was suggesting we take a tunnel that would take us away from our destination, and it's a tunnel no regular taxi driver has ever used with me when driving to that destination before. Well, after dealing with evening crowds & inner city…

You mean its Navigation Software? I'd hate for GPS to become a synonym for route planning.

Re: I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver

#10
post #6
post #2

I've had only awesome experiences as an Uber rider (in the Boston area and Bay Area) and all the drivers I talked to seem pretty happy (especially ex-taxi drivers). I agree the software is a bit shotty, but I'd bet they are aware of and working out all the kinks.

My understanding is that Uber drivers are always happy about being uber drivers when talking to customers because there is a "secret shopper" program that considers complaining about the company to be a bad thing.

Yea in my experience they are rarely interested in talking about Uber itself. I always ask how they are finding it and they just say "yea good" or similar and move on.
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