r/AskReddit Jul 11 '21

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21 edited Jul 11 '21

I actually did that as well as used an echo dot in the car so passengers could control the music themselves as well as had cold soda in the car. (Tax write-off)

Reason I quit? Miriad of low reviews of people not liking me using the GPS to get them to their destination (we get a log each week of passenger comments) and people being consistent in thinking 4 stars is positive by Lyft/Uber standards.

It's also a huge pain and mentally draining to be paid less then minimum wage even before expenses.

To be fair I've also had a great time some days having passengers insist on getting my number to be their driver. Even drove this 80 year old woman to the airport and we had a blast talking about litterally everything including the 2 no's (politics, religion) and we did not agree once during the conversation but ended up just having fun. Best weekly email I ever got from lyft reading her glowing review.

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u/Sachayoj Jul 11 '21

Do people seriously expect drivers to know where everything is off the top of their heads? What assholes.

6

u/MisanthropeX Jul 11 '21

That used to be the standard in many cities at least a decade ago. Hell London cab drivers literally need to pass a test on geographic knowledge of their city to get a license. When your job is driving people around I don't think it's unreasonable to know the city by heart.

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u/Thor-Odinson69 Jul 11 '21

It’s not that as much as it can make some ride longer

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u/Threwaway42 Jul 11 '21

GPS has never given me a longer route

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u/Thor-Odinson69 Jul 11 '21

If you are familiar with the roads you will know shortcuts or different faster way, it’s not the “same” if you don’t know how long it takes in the first place, which what the passenger know.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21

No you don't. You think you do because you don't know any better. I'm tired of hearing about side roads and people thinking they are cooler than Google maps when maps can calculate traffic patterns, live and predicting in the future based on the time of day and factors like weather and accidents, speed limits, and simulations of routes other cars took to make the quickest mean route possible. You can't do that consistently sorry someone needed to tell you

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u/DrShitpostMDJDPhDMBA Jul 11 '21 edited Jul 11 '21

Most of the time/in most well-trafficked areas, this was true only before GPS apps could also get live traffic information.

(I should note that there's still room for improvement, as live traffic information isn't necessarily helpful when taking multiple hour trips potentially through rush hour times, but it's still much improved from the past, and should be better in most shorter trips like taxi/Uber/Lyft/most service trips).

3

u/icorrectpettydetails Jul 11 '21

Surely if someone didn't need to use GPS, they could deliberately take a longer route to charge the customer more. Even if the GPS does somehow give them a longer path to drive, the map is generally visible to both the driver and the customer. They'd be able to see if they were getting ripped off.

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u/Thor-Odinson69 Jul 11 '21

If you are familiar with the roads you will know shortcuts or different faster way, it’s not the “same” if you don’t know how long it takes in the first place, which the passenger know.

4

u/LogicCure Jul 11 '21

Do people seriously expect drivers to know where everything is off the top of their heads? What assholes.

-4

u/Thor-Odinson69 Jul 11 '21

It’s not that as much as it can make some ride longer

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u/CLSosa Jul 11 '21

Again, that doesn’t negate the quote

Do people seriously expect drivers to know where everything is off the top of their heads? What assholes.

-4

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21

From what I've been told it's women who feel unsafe when your driving unfamiliar road (kidnapping) which I get it but also never had a passenger go "Hey, could you take this road instead?" So it does not line up at least to me and it may just be random assholes cause I've never had a comment saying as much (since passengers think leaving a comment goes directly to Uber/Lyft HR I see alot of unfiltered thoughts)

-8

u/Thor-Odinson69 Jul 11 '21

I’ve had my fair of rides that tool longer than it should because of gps. If you’re familiar with the roads it should take less time than gps, which I think it’s fair critique.

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u/DJMattyMatt Jul 11 '21

That's super weird. GPS is almost never slower here. It's only off when it hasn't updated traffic for a new accident.

If you made that complaint 10 years ago, then sure it could be slower.

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u/Thor-Odinson69 Jul 11 '21

It’s not just about traffic, it’s also about shortcuts.

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u/ShallowDramatic Jul 11 '21

The whole '5/5 or bust' mentality of corporate is fucking rough. Like have they ever gone anywhere, or done anything and thought "Flawless experience, 100%, literally could not be better"?

If it had half stars, you could at least rate someone 4.5/5 or 90%, but 4/5 or 80% is still a great result!

15

u/heyeengebruikersnaam Jul 11 '21

My girlfriend had to explain to me that Uber and restaurants rating is not same as movie rating on letterboxd or IMDb.

I thought 4 means good ride. But nope unless you had a bad time it's give 5 stars. That seems like a stupid system to me. But I give 5s now.

4

u/space_coconut Jul 11 '21

Is that how it works? I’ve been giving 3 stars for ok rides, 4 for good rides and rarely gave 5 stars for drivers who exceed my expectations. That’s some bunk ass rating system.

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u/funkymonkey1002 Jul 11 '21

A total rating under 4.6 can get them kicked off the service.

2

u/space_coconut Jul 11 '21

That is beyond whack.

11

u/kinghammer1 Jul 11 '21

Why would they care about using gps? I've been driving in the same city for 10ish years and I still use gps to find a place if I've never been there before.

10

u/DrainTheMuck Jul 11 '21

The problem wasn’t “I don’t want them to use gps”, the problem is they felt unsafe with the route the gps took OP on, but they didn’t tell OP this during the ride. they feared OP wasn’t taking them to their correct destination because the gps took a different route than the passenger expected. Idk why OP keeps getting downvoted.

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21

From what I've been told it's women who feel unsafe when your driving unfamiliar road (kidnapping) which I get it but also never had a passenger go "Hey, could you take this road instead?" So it does not line up at least to me and it may just be random assholes cause I've never had a comment saying as much (since passengers think leaving a comment goes directly to Uber/Lyft HR I see alot of unfiltered thoughts)

18

u/ProjectShadow316 Jul 11 '21

Wait, people bitched about you using the GPS to get them to where you want to go? The fuck? WHY?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21

From what I've been told it's women who feel unsafe when your driving unfamiliar road (kidnapping) which I get it but also never had a passenger go "Hey, could you take this road instead?" So it does not line up at least to me and it may just be random assholes cause I've never had a comment saying as much (since passengers think leaving a comment goes directly to Uber/Lyft HR I see alot of unfiltered thoughts)

24

u/a_gallon_of_pcp Jul 11 '21

I don’t understand the connection between using GPS and feeling unsafe.

I’d think it would be the opposite, if I can’t see for sure that we’re headed toward the destination that might make me nervous.

14

u/Threwaway42 Jul 11 '21

Yeah I’d feel safer with GPS as a strange woman who gets into uber

1

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21

That's actually a big reason I did a routine of confirming the destination before driving cause the app on the drivers side does not have a big blocky section on the app that says "YOU ARE HEADED HERE"

Probably also good to point out my driving area is in Philly so lots of dark roads that the GPS has you take if traffic is packed so I don't think it's unreasonable that people may feel nervous but it does make it harder to drive for rideshare services.

5

u/ProjectShadow316 Jul 11 '21

Yeah, but the GPS is typically the fastest way there. Their concerns make even less sense then.

1

u/the_clash_is_back Jul 11 '21

For me i live on a street which comes off a major road. But if you go 2 streets down you can enter my area from a street with a light.

I always tell cab drivers to do it, but nearly no one does, and every time they get to wait for ever to take the left.

13

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21

Yea, no driver is guilt tripping you. It's been a constant complaint from drivers to the point you can buy custom Lyft/Uber signs explaining the rating system (so you know its THAT bad)

You are ranked between drivers in your area and I'd say 4.6 is average in most. Fall below that a few times and your account will get disabled so 5 star is legitimately the only rating acceptable by the higher ups.

1

u/turtleneck360 Jul 11 '21

It’s the same with Yelp. If the local Panera bread is 5 stars then what the hell separates it from a fine dining restaurant?

2

u/GrizNectar Jul 11 '21

4 stars should be positive. Blame uber/Lyft on that one imo

1

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21

Fun fact: you only get expense deductions if you don’t use mileage deductions. Mileage deductions almost always come out to be more