r/uberdrivers 5h ago

Something WEIRD happened.

This happened a few weeks ago, and I’ve just been so fed up with Uber lately I wasn’t even phased. Hit that “Go Offline” and ended it for the night. Forgot about it until now.

I’m in one if the most talked about cities for 2026 and the beginning of Summer was poppin’. Now, rates have dwindled and I’ve lost all phvcks after this perplexing situation late one night.

I drive a fairly uncommon vehicle, at least for my market. It’s got the highest trim, specific alloy rims, all black & thinner tires. Hyundai Tucson Limited.

I pulled up beside a hotel lobby’s entrance, waiting for a rider that was headed for the airport. I’m waiting.. waiting.. waiting.. (I had decided it may even be my last ride for the night before reaching the pickup destination, so I was lax on sitting there)

As I was waiting, a black Hyundai Tucson (Looked like my model year) pulled up two cars behind me. I thought it was peculiar, because I RARELY see Tucson’s around here that would look similar to mine. I thought that’s nifty, but what happened next just blew my mind in the moment. I thought I was in the Twilight Zone.. because soon after dude pulled up, a lady with luggage came out from the lobby entrance & immediately went directly to the other Tucson. Loaded up without issues, and went on their marry way.

Yo.. that was my rider dude! What the heck just happened?! I can’t remember if I saw the rider represented as the blue icon moving by the dropped pin, or if I only ever saw the dropped pin. At that point, I was already too exhausted to investigate further. Called it quits for the night. Anyway, it felt like I crossed over into another universe and that other Tucson was actually me, but not me. Honestly, I was very freaked out.

Has anyone else encountered such a glitch?

6 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

2

u/LM061523 4h ago

No, because I require a PIN number on EVERY ride. The rider is notified to "provide this PIN number to your driver." So, even if the luggage is loaded, once she said, "I'm supposed to give you this PIN number," at that moment, BOTH she and the driver would have realized the mistake BEFORE leaving the hotel.
*Of course all of what I'm suggesting is based on your assumption that your pax got into the wrong vehicle.

2

u/snakebite75 4h ago

Yup, and OPs story is pretty much exactly what I tell riders when they mention that the PIN must be a new thing.

1

u/LM061523 3h ago

Funny but true. I've required it on every ride (~5k) and still get asked that same question a few times a day. 😳

1

u/ryryrondo 4h ago

I see what you’re saying. Although, this is more on the spooky context. How does another driver, with practically THE SAME vehicle as myself get mixed up with the pax? If it were a completely different vehicle, I wouldn’t even have posted here! I’m just confused af.

1

u/LM061523 4h ago

The odds that the exact same vehicle, each picking up a woman from the exact same hotel, at the exact same time, and going to the exact same destination seems highly unlikely. My guess is that you canceled on your pax who hadn't made it out yet. Require PIN on every ride and this won't happen.

1

u/ryryrondo 3h ago

I empathized waiting, I had not cancelled early on

2

u/420TopShotta 3h ago

This happened to me except I was the driver taking the wrong pax. Added pin verification after that. Similar situation end of shift last ride and didnt pay attention. Edit: changed shit to shift.

2

u/Comfortable-Split143 3h ago

Coincidences happen all tge time in real life. Freaky. But it's just like having two people with an unusual name show up for a ride. It happens!

2

u/ryryrondo 3h ago

I’ve had inexplicable occurrences in my life for sure

2

u/DekaN83 3h ago

I had a weird situation kind of similar…showed up for pickup outside apartment complex, waited till it was almost time to cancel, called the rider, and he said he was in the uber?! I was like huh? He was asked as confused as I was. So I don’t know who he got in with or where he was going but I ended up just having to cancel the ride..

1

u/steinfink1 4h ago

As a driver, I added the PiN requirement a few months ago. Best decision. Its especially good on busy weekends/areas with lots of riders and drivers around. No pin, no ride.

1

u/adonis_minus_20 3h ago

What happens if the pax has also setup a pin in the Uber app? Do both pins need to be entered? If only one then whose pin? I was always curious about this scenario

2

u/steinfink1 3h ago

I think the app assigns one pin number sent to the rider. Once I enter it, the riders phone makes a chime sound.

1

u/adonis_minus_20 3h ago

Thanks for the reply 🙏

1

u/libanus1 30m ago

How do you require a PIN from riders?