My Uber passenger rating is 4.57. I have no idea whether that's good or bad. I'm typically at pick-up points before the drivers are, I sometimes chat with drivers, I always wear my seatbelt, I sit in the back, and I don't make a mess or cause any problems. It's hard to know what I could be doing to get a better rating beyond just bribing drivers with cash tips at the end of the ride. I tend to rate every driver a 5 unless they clearly did something wrong, like insane driving (which happens rarely).
I'd be curious to know what the passenger cut-off ratings are, and what thus what kind of behavior is actually kicking people off the app.
Also, if there's some inherent racial or other protected class bias in the kinds of ratings that people get, then Uber could be in a world of trouble here.
I don't think there's much you can do, or if there is it is none of these things. Mine was ~4.5 for forever. I was always on time, careful entering/exiting the vehicle, very polite, etc. and even regularly gave cash tips before the app offered the option.
A few years ago I started dating a girl who had nearly a 5 star rating. She eventually moved in with me and since then nearly all my trips are together. We are often late arriving to the meeting point, she has no hesitation to ask the driver to change the air temperature, adjust the music station or volume, open or close windows, always takes water when available, and asks to be dropped off at a given point regardless of traffic lights or inconvenient turns for the driver. Since this started, my rating has steadily climbed and is now around 4.8.
Have you tried asking? I asked a few drivers, at the end of a ride and after I’d rated them, what I could do better. Two complained about my taking work calls in the car. I started requesting permission, at the beginning of the ride, to take a phone call. (It’s their car, after all.) Never been refused. Rating jumped from ~4.4 to ~4.9.
I’ll also note that some of the sweetest people I know have terrible ratings for constantly being late, at the wrong pick-up spot or other little reasons. It’s mostly a rating around if you’re observant and treat the driver like a human being more than if you’re a good person.
(Note: I’m a guy. I don’t think gender is as powerful as other comments assume.)
>Two complained about my taking work calls in the car. I started requesting permission, at the beginning of the ride, to take a phone call.(It’s their car, after all.)
Seriously? It's their car that you've contracted to take you from Point A to Point B. It would never occur to me to ask permission before making (or taking) a phone call.
> It's their car that you've contracted to take you from Point A to Point B. It would never occur to me to ask permission before making (or taking) a phone call.
It wouldn’t have to me, either. But I was curious and so asked, and in between the useless answers I got that repeating point of feedback.
Note that I didn’t stop taking calls. But I did think “how would I behave if I were in a friend’s car?” I figured I’d at least give a heads up that a call was coming in. So I tried that one thing and it worked.
> An Uber driver is not my friend. They’re someone I’m paying to drive me.
This is a fair view. It’s also fair to treat a driver as a new acquaintance. And it makes sense that the drivers who have a choice (i.e. are higher rated) will choose riders who treat them like that.
My point isn’t everyone has to do these things. Just that if you care about your rating, asking for feedback and offering common courtesies cab go a long way. (I’ve also found it improves my disposition, but that’s a separate matter.)
Perfectly fair. It sounds as if you might have liked the early days of Lyft. Personally I never used them then because the whole fist bump, faux friend, thing was totally offputting.
On the rare occasions I use Uber or Lyft today, I’m polite and friendly/chatty enough depending on the circumstances but someone’s doing a job for me and I don’t owe them anything beyond basic politeness.
Dunno. It's a per peeve of mine when people take a non-speakerphone call in a common space. Trains, cars, meals, or living rooms.
It monopolizes the noise in the area and puts everyone else in some sort of awkward space where they have to eavesdrop and pretend they aren't. Sometimes I think about obviously watching a train commuter have a long and loud phone conversation, but I don't because it would be rude and aggressive.
I guess hired cars are a little different in most respects but people can still feel bad or awkward for listening in on something they aren't part of. Especially if the conversation is loud, personal, or confidential.
It's much better if the phone call is urgent, short, or important. But even then it's polite to be conciliatory as the phone call is made or picked up.
Hired car is definitely different. You’ve rented that space, it is not public. I don’t see anything wrong with having a phone call while being driven around.
I take Uber rarely but, of course, the system is setup so that the driver can rate me however they like for whatever reason. As can I them. And it might even be reasonable for them to give me a lower score for a long "loud" conversation or for discussing matters that probably shouldn't be discussed in public which make them uncomfortable.
OTOH, while they can do whatever they want, the expectation seems to be that both driver and rider give top scores barring one or the other doing something that clearly deviates from the norms of taxi driver or passenger behavior.
In any case, I'm pretty confident that I'm normally polite and if someone gives me a lower score now and then on one of these services, I really don't care.
If you have a low rating, Uber offers tips to improve it such as not slamming doors, being ready for pickup, etc. I think it’s also easily found in the Help section of the app.
I dunno, if I were a driver I'd probably be pretty annoyed by hearing one end of a loud conversation for an entire long ride.
Generally in the rides I'm in the driver is still listening to whatever music they like, which obviously they can't do if the passenger is trying to have a phone conversation.
>Two complained about my taking work calls in the car. I started requesting permission, at the beginning of the ride, to take a phone call.(It’s their car, after all.)
I don't take calls during rides, I'm almost never late for the pickup (and have never gone past the grace period), and I'm very precise at setting the pickup pin exactly. It's not any of these issues.
And no, I've never considered asking "how I can do better". They're providing the service, not me, and I'm paying them.
There is also the possibility that asking people to do small things for you will increase their positive view of you. I remember reading about psychologist having uncovered such an effect but I forget the name of it.
If I had to bet, I would say both factors (and others we aren't considered) are at play.
This is known as the Ben Franklin Effect [0] and is pretty interesting to read up on. It wouldn't at all surprise me if this plays into passenger ratings, even though it seems counter-intuitive.
OK, I think it's another effect than "increasing their positive view of you". It is something I have noted and struggled with because it is counter intuitive to me.
I always try to be very autonomous and ask the minimum favors/services from people, trying not to bother them. This has caused me trouble several times, from people that were supposed to help me. When I was doing track and field two decades ago I had a sports sponsorship cancelled essentially because I didn't ask any extra gear.
When you ask a favor and the person fulfills it, they get to be useful and it gives them purpose. I have found that this varies from people to people.
The Uber driver will most likely feel good if you actually need his help as a human being rather than just be a mindless vehicle operator.
Congratulations on having a pretty girlfriend. Don't underestimate the power of having a pretty girl talk to you, even if it's just to ask to change the radio station.
It goes both ways. I remember a conversation I had with a very nice Uber driver, a Muslim woman. She made a point of picking up female riders with low ratings, because she believed male Uber drivers would downrate them if they thought the women unattractive, or if they rejected advances.
One thing I know riders may do inadvertently which aggravates drivers is slamming the door when you get out. Many are unaware of it, but it's quite annoying to the driver.
For me, I often rate drivers below 5 for the following common reasons:
1. Check engine light is on.
2. TPMS sensor light is on (major safety risk)
3. Poor routing choices (deviations outside the directed route)
These are professional drivers so I hold them to professional standards with respect to: maintaining their equipment, maintaining a safety standard, and knowing navigation.
Edit: Yes TPMS is super flaky. I own three cars equipped with TPMS and I've invested a great deal of time/money in maintaining them. But I keep them all in working condition. I can only assume that some of you poo-poo'ing TPMS are unaware of the Firestone Ford Debacle that caused close to 300 deaths [1]. Under inflated tires are no-joke. Suggesting that it's ok to defeat a critical safety system is laughable. Also I live in CA so it's not a snow-tire issue.
If TPMS is tire pressure, then you are being unfair. There are cars like Toyota and Audi that have sensors that don't work well and even frequent service can't keep them off (to the point where some will not-quite-suggest disabling them).
So if you are going to downgrade for that, at least have a look at the tires directly and see if one is obviously lower than the others.
In California, summer tires get the best traction and all-seasons are generally worse (many people mistakenly believe that all-seasons perform better than summer in the rain, I suppose because winter is the rainy season here).
I guess it depends on what part of California you're talking about but all-seasons will generally outperform equivalent grade summer tires in the rain if temperatures start falling below 50-55° or so. A summer tire's grip falls off precipitously [1] when temperatures reach 40-45° but the loss of grip in that "NorCal winter" kind of weather can reduce their performance below that of all seasons. Just because they haven't lost a dangerous amount of grip doesn't mean they haven't fallen behind the grip available to a tire with a more temperature insensitive compound.
Agreed, I should have specified that all-seasons are the safe option in some parts of California. My frame of reference is the warm climates of Silicon Valley and SoCal. Summer tires could even lose traction in one of the colder nights in a San Jose winter.
in theory, the difference between summers and all-seasons is the rubber compound used. all things being equal, the summer compound will perform better when it's hot outside. in reality, most people in the US just don't care and run all-seasons year round. people tend to only buy summer tires for performance-oriented vehicles, so the tires offered with summer compound tend to be aggressive tires with less tread. if you pick a summer tire at random, it may well be less capable than an all-season tire in the rain. the superior compound can't grip if it can't evacuate enough water from the contact patch.
I always swap my own tires in the summer/winter because it takes me less time to do it than to drive to the shop. TPMS, but it can be such a pain.
My previous car, 2010 VW I could switch from summer to winter wheels/tires and drive away. TPMS would figure it out just fine. Now I have a Subaru and am debating buying a $100 tool to reset them. It won't take long to pay for itself, but as it is now, the light is still on.
Worse, my Ram has positional sensors and I haven't seen any "cheap" tools. It happens to be the same set of wheels, but I rotated them and it expects different pressure in the front vs rear. The light is on and it yells at every start because the rear tires are underinflated. How hard can it be for a car to learn which tire is on which corner of the vehicle?
I have a tool to reset them myself, I think it was free from Tire Rack when I bought the tires. It's like a keyfob and pretty simple to use, you just hold down a button.
TPMS reset is usually holding a button and typically in your driver's manual for the vehicle. Found this out myself when my tires got replaced and they couldn't reset my TPMS sensors.
Tire pressure sensors are super flaky. Mine come on randomly all the time, and after the first few dozen times I stopped to put a real gauge on them and saw that all four were right at the rated pressure, I've gotten to the point where I just ignore it and punch the button on the dash to hide the warning. It's the kind of false negative feedback that is especially unhelpful.
It doesn't help that it is completely opaque what the thresholds are for when the warning light goes off; I also don't know whether one is supposed to recalibrate anything if you change the type of tire that you are running - for instance, I run snow tires during the winter that have a different PSI rating than my all-seasons the rest of the year...
You car manufacturer should be setting the psi, rather than the tire manufacturer. There are indeed manufacturers who recommend higher pressure on winter tires for that car model, but it's still the model and not the tire that drives it. (Tires have a max inflation pressure, but the recommended pressure comes off the door jamb of your car.)
TPMS is also relatively easy to reset (just read the manual) it does not require professional service. You usually do need to do it seasonally due to fluctuations in outside temp. Drivers should really be aware of it.
I'd encourage you not to rate low over the TPMS sensor light - it's far from a guarantee of actually low tire pressure.
On many cars, TPMS sensor problems cause the light to blink at startup, then stay on steadily just like you had a low tire. That includes "the tire doesn't have a sensor", which can save about $200 on each valve stem. Given how quickly an Uber driver can rack up mileage, I wouldn't be surprised if many of them are just saving money on tires by getting sensor-less ones.
(Admittedly you can't tell if they're checking the pressure manually; I would think so to save on tire lifespan, but it's obviously not guaranteed. Of course, not seeing the light isn't a guarantee either.)
Hell, even my dealership "only" charges $80 per wheel. Though we quickly learned the local tire shop does them for $40 a pop with a much quicker service. I generally just let the dealer service our car since there's not many mechanics in the area qualified to service hybrids anyway, but hell if I'm letting them rip us off on anything related to the tires again (even though their prices for Toyota factory tires are quite fair, I'm not paying an extra $40 a tire for the sensors when we buy a new set).
Yep, that. I guess TPMS for the winter rims would be a one-time cost that should outlast the tires, but it's still pretty common to not get it. An extra ~$800 up front, last time I had a tire replaced the sensor ended up damaged anyway, and if your winter tire pressure is different it'll just complain uselessly anyway.
Plus, if you're already spending >$1000 for winter tires/wheels, it's hard to justify TPMS on top of that.
And if you're paying that much for the added safety/performance, you're not the kind of person who needs TPMS to nag them into inflating to the proper pressure.
If you're spending >$1000 on tires, how is a $80 set of TPMS hard to justify?
Presumably you're buying snow tires for safety reasons. Proper tire pressure is important for traction, thus safety. And winter is the time when tire pressure fluctuates the most.
Sure, but if you’re the kind of person who buys winter tires (which IME is pretty rare in the widwest USA), you probably know that and check your pressure every couple weeks. And it probably only fluctuates a couple PSI which is well within safe bounds.
> And winter is the time when tire pressure fluctuates the most
genuinely curious, why? I thought tire pressure fluctuations were linearly related to air temperature fluctuations. does the temperature vary more in the winter than in the summer?
At least in some of the US, quite a bit more. Winter might be swings of >50F, especially night to day, while summer variation is likely to be <40F. I'm not what all weather patterns factor into that, but a major part is that winter air is dryer, and water vapor does a lot to 'buffer' brief temperature changes.
That said, I mostly end up checking my tires more in the winter because I care more; if a tire is only a few pounds low I'd still prefer to handle it before I have to go drive on snow during a cold snap.
Sensors are frequently and unavoidably damaged during unmounting. Many shops just replace the sensors as a matter of course when replacing the tire, since there is no way to test the sensor until the new tire is mounted and inflated.
TPMS modules are insanely flaky. That light will pop for reasons ranging from synchronization issues to using a spare without a module (not the donut!)..none of which impact safety at all.
Same with "check engine." My last car had the check engine light on from years 3 to 15, when I sold it. The reason was a faulty sensor but the actual mechanics were sound and not worth fixing.
I'm amused that you think you're holding drivers to professional standards. Professionals know when to ignore the dummy lights intended for the masses...
...which is not to say you should change anything, because Uber drivers ARE the masses, so it makes little sense to treat them like professionals!
> My last car had the check engine light on from years 3 to 15, when I sold it. The reason was a faulty sensor but the actual mechanics were sound
Some Nissan models used to have a fun version of this where the check engine light came on to notify you about a problem with... the check engine light. It was a bug, obviously, but not a sensor wrongly detecting a fault. Rather, the car's only way of saying "if something goes wrong the check engine light might not activate" was to activate the check engine light.
Whatever the underlying issue, I assume software, replacing sensors didn't work and resetting the light would only last for a few hundred miles. It was effectively impossible to keep the light working, so the mechanic-recommended fix was to just disable it.
Not really. I don't have the ability to choose which car I ride in with Uberpool. I have limited ability to choose what car I ride in when I carpool the normal way via Bay Area casual carpool stops (I can refuse to get in the next car in line, and that's about it). And, in either of those scenarios, the most important factor (the driver) is essentially random as well.
When the light is on, you have no assurance that the tires are properly inflated. Period. If the TPMS light is off, you can be well-assured that tires are inflated properly.
Yes, the system is finicky (by design). Yes the system can be costly to maintain (I do it myself it's it expensive and time-consuming). These are the responsibilities one must take on if they wish to be transporting the public.
>When the light is on, you have no assurance that the tires are properly inflated
I mean, you could always, you know, check. With a tire pressure gauge. Like on every car ever that didn't have this TP thingy. Honestly, you don't even need to do that - if the tire is low enough to be a safety risk, it will be visibly flat.
Would you down-rate an Uber just for not having this sensor at all?
I'd suggest adding #4. Not using turn signals. This makes things slightly less safe for everyone else on the road (including peds + bikers) and it costs the driver nothing to properly signal.
Mechanical failure is a fart in a hurricane compared to human factors when it comes to safety. I'm not gonna ding anyone for being too cheap to put TPMS sensors in their snow tire rims. I'm not gonna ding anyone for a CEL either. 95% of the time it's basically just complaining that an emissions system is not in an optimal state. In a work vehicle setting you do not fix this when it happens. You plan a time in the future to take the vehicle down for maintenance, just like patching a prod system.
The CEL being on isn't enough for me to ding a driver but I've also never received an Uber ride where the CEL was on but the car was in otherwise top condition. There is definitely enough of a correlation between a CEL being on and the car having a blown suspension (bushings, struts, CV joints), some engine belt or accessory with a bearing about to fail, or brake pads so worn it's basically riding on nothing but the wear indicators (squealers). Sometimes I even get lucky and get all three.
Maybe it's reasonable to report the CEL in that situation since it's something most riders will notice and can easily be verified by Uber with a photo unlike the condition of the mechanical bits themselves.
In a non-work vehicle, I imagine most people do the same. My wife's car has the MIL/CEL lit for the last 6 weeks for a failed knock sensor. I ordered the part and will probably change it this weekend, but we're not parking it and it's not a safety or even an emissions concern.
It really isn't. (very) low tire pressure is a major safety risk. The TPMS sensors I've had all seem to go off at minor deviations (few psi) from the tire pressure; deviations that aren't a safety risk.
A useful reminder that the winter is coming, but hardly a major safety risk.
Close to 300 people died [1] in the 90s due to improperly inflated tires. Sorry, but I don't screw around with safety factors like this when I'm being hurled down freeway interchanges at 70 mph.
> The TPMS sensors I've had all seem to go off at minor deviations
Uh no, according to your own source they died because of tread separation caused by a number of factors, one of which may have been underinflation. But in this example the 'underinflated' value was manufacturer recommended, so a TPMS wouldn't have helped anyways.
Ah sorry, that's the global statistic, not the US statistic.
Still, both statistics illustrate the point - 300 deaths a few decades ago involving faulty tires that may have been exacerbated by manufacturer-recommended underinflation have basically 0 bearing on the marginal risk of driving with a TPMS warning light illuminated.
It isn’t like these doors tensions are standardized. How much pressure to apply to the trunk door of this car you’ve never ridden in before? No idea, it might even be the auto closing kind. Thankfully, most Ubers are priuses, but not always.
That's why you should push doors/trunks/hatches closed and not throw/shove/fling them. I don't mean "push", as in close it like your closing the front door after sneaking home after curfew in high school. I mean it more like keep your hand on the door and slowly accelerate until you've given it enough momentum.
You aren’t pushing so much as pulling. It is much more difficult to control from the inside. Anyways, I just don’t ride in enough cars to get used to the different tensions (maybe if I took Uber more). Also, it always seems to be the American sedans that have the most problems, which we don’t have too many of on the west coast.
I can understand that. Honestly, my experience with modern midsize sedans (Altima in particular, Accord, Camry, Sonata, etc) is that the manufacturers view the rear doors as throwaway areas for "engineering" weight out of the car. The rear doors on these cars honestly weigh about half what the fronts weigh and they fly open and close as if made of paper maché.
These TPMS sensors do add a significant price increase on the tires, which most people I know about choose to avoid at the expense of this "lights on".
We do have to swap our tires for winter tires up north, so I'm not getting tires with the sensors.
I googled "Firestone Ford" before reading to the end of the sentence and seeing your link, and amazingly, the first result is a woman named "Martha Firestone Ford" [1], whose name comes from the same business relationship that produced the debacle.
I have a 4.20 and it's bizarre. I've never made an Uber wait for me, I'm always outside. I greet them. I'm clean. My routes are always penciled in exactly. I don't see how I'm not the model passenger.
Maybe it's just because I'm a gringo in Mexico? Maybe I should use a little more small talk charm? Or offer them gum? Improve my accent? Bring them a bottle of S.Pellegrino, nicely chilled? It's a stupid system.
Edit: A sibling comment inspired me to ask my girlfriend for her rating. It's a 4.89. Yet she always stays inside until the Uber driver arrives to pick her up, often honking outside for her while she finally starts turning off lights and shutting the house down.
Based on what you and some other people are saying, it does seem bizarre, like maybe some kind of random favoritism is going on.
I also am white and live in Mexico (Playas de Tijuana). My rating is 4.81. I have been going on the assumption that I am kind of ugly looking, although its hard for me to be objective about it.
I do always give tips though. They usually have three choices, like 10, 15, or 20 pesos, and I always pick the highest option. Sometimes for a longer trip I will put like 38 pesos tip. Maybe there is some way for drivers to track tips and somehow that can affect a rating?
I always say thanks for the ride when I get in and out.
My Spanish is very limited and I rarely attempt to say anything in Spanish except for buena noche or something like that. In this area around 33-40% of the drivers speak English.
I can vouch for there being a protected class bias. In my experience (Boston), using Uber while on crutches will cause your rating to fall. Even if you take full-service Uber’s (not Pool), and generally have someone to help you in and out and managing your crutches, drivers simply tend to rate you lower. Possibly because they have to wait longer, or because I need to lean on the car getting in and out, or because they need to keep the crutches in their car somehow.
I was on crutches with a broken ankle a few years ago and definitely took more Ubers during that period (including shorter rides). This could definitely be part of it.
I had a roughly 5.0 rating over a hundred or so rides in the Midwest US, but mine dropped to around 4 after taking 30-40 Ubers in India. It was a different experience there, and I always wondered if rating scales are different culturally (and we did have some GPS/language barrier difficulty, as well as some drivers who refused to be paid with Uber and made us give them cash that I’m sure affected it), but the ratings still stay with you global.
We have the same experience, our rating while in Asia was around solid 4.6 while after 3 months in Europe went up to 4.85. Our guess is that in EU, people tend to either give 5 stars or no rating, while in Asia if we had a bit worse ride, we and people around us had no hesistation of leaving 3 or 4 star review.
Race/ethnic/cultural tendencies on 5-star an numeric eating scales have been studied quite a bit, and, yes, Europeans tend to give higher ratings for acceptable service (tending to give maximum ratings for “meets expectations”) while Asians tend to give lower ratings (tending toward middle-of-scale ratings for “meets expectations”).
I wonder how much that tendency is the result of Europeans having more exposure to "management by the numbers" kind of rating/review systems. Nearly everyone has held or known someone close to them with a job where a mostly meaningless customer review/rating/survey grade had an enormously disproportionate impact on their perceived job performance. The only times I'll ever rate something that isn't exceptionally good or exceptionally bad is when it is obviously tied to that person's performance metrics and they met expectations.
I would report that. All of the UberX rides that I had in Delihi were taxis who didn't have the meter on. I've had a few that were just not great, butyou shouldn't be having that big of an issue with Uber there. English is an offical language in India.
This was in Chennai mostly, so little different language situation. I don’t mean to come off too harsh on it, as having Uber in India was extremely useful for me getting around. Some of the rides were around 1-2 USD so wasn’t worth the hassle.
There are 16 official languages in India. The vast majority of cab drivers you encounter will only know one of them. In the South English is more likely to be spoken, in the North, it is far less likely.
That could be part of it. I do a fair bit of international travel, and some of it could either be cultural ratings differences or just frustration over communication difficulties.
I've heard that Uber drivers will sometimes give low ratings to people who take short trips. A ride-share form has someone who seems to have high-ish reputation backing that up [1].
This happened to me. I had a 5 star rating until I started using Uber for work travel to/from a busy airport that I live close to. A driver could easily spend 20+ minutes getting to me before they could spend the 15 minutes driving me to my destination for $10. This tanked my rating down to around 4 stars for a while. I was relatively new to Uber so it was easy to check my rating after a ride and do the math to see when I was getting a 1 star review averaged into my rating.
I started tipping the drivers cash which helped, but then I realized it was easier to just use a taxi at the airport. It would only cost a few dollars more, and I wouldn't have to wait for the driver to get through 20 minutes of airport traffic to pick me up. I also didn't have to worry about my rating if I pissed off the driver (especially for short airport fares the drivers seem to like telling me that their credit card machine was broken. Argue with them a bit and the machine magically starts working).
How is that an effective repercussion without them also telling you that they're giving you a lower rating for that reason? Do they expect you to somehow intuit over time based on meticulously checking your score after each ride and doing the math?
I might be suffering from the opposite problem then. I live in NYC and walk/bike most places; I only rarely even take the subway. When I'm taking rideshare it's almost always to/from airports (here and elsewhere). I definitely don't use it for short trips. And given how often taxi drivers don't want to take you to airports, I can imagine Uber drivers might not like that either? It can certainly take them far out of their way.
> It's hard to know what I could be doing to get a better rating beyond just bribing drivers with cash tips at the end of the ride.
This is almost all that matters now. Any drivers forum will be full of drivers basically talking about how they give lower ratings if you don't tip cash. A few are even full-on blatant about it in person if you bring it up.
After time I think we'll see things coalesce around only riders who pay cash tips get 5 star ratings.
The rider can also leave a bad rating for the driver in this case, though, right?
Does Uber deactivate drivers that fall below a certain rating? Even if they don't, I presume lower ratings would hurt a driver more than they would a passenger.
So if a driver is trying to pull this it wouldn't end out great for either party, I would presume?
Mine is 4.77, though I don't use uber that much. I'm also pretty sure they display a recent average, with old (>1 year?) rides not counting.
I also feel compelled to give drivers 5 stars because people IMO tend to look down at anything less than the best. I realize it's not the most accurate comparison, but would you buy from an ebay/amazon reseller who had a 80% approval rating?
There’s no way to know what the reasons are for the reviews either way. Sometimes the app messes up the location it sends drivers to, is the driver faulting me and giving me a lower rating? Does the driver not like the conversation? I think for an effective feedback loop you need to provide a reason. As others have mentioned, I too only give drivers 5 stars.
This is strange. I'm always on time, on location and drivers usually appreciate the fact that I'm always exactly where I say I'll be when they arrive. The trips are completely uneventful. The only thing they could possibly not like about me is that I'm a boring passenger. My rating is 4.67. So I just assume that's a good rating!
Definitely regional. When I was in NYC I always got lower ratings when going from Manhattan to Queens, even while tipping well with cash. Bay Area? Went up to an almost perfect score (even going from San Francisco to Oakland frequently), people acted surprised when I tipped cash, etc.
I'm probably getting punished for dragging drivers out of Manhattan then -- which I do all the time when going to airports. Oh well. If it's proportional to the area then I'm probably still doing OK.
Customers are expensive to acquire, and Uber is not going to throw them away for no good reason. Their incentive is to ban customers only when their behavior is so bad that they are at risk of losing drivers
They could start banning people they don't like for political reasons, same as payment processors. If people from the other side of the aisle are in power, they could ask Uber to ban illegal aliens.
It's crazy that you won't be able to take public transportation like Uber because of your political beliefs or because of who you are.
For Uber the drivers are also their customers. So, agree that protecting the drivers from hostile/bad riders is important also. Uber is just like a marketplace in many ways.
Sneaky but you can casually linger in the car for an extra second; most drivers rate you right as you're getting out, with a phone that's usually mounted within eyeshot of passenger seats.
The ones who will give you 5 stars usually do it right away in front of you; if they seem weirdly secretive about it, you're probably not getting 5 stars.
Ratings by drivers are very often based on irrelevant criteria like how likeable you seem, or whether they interpret your preference for silence as an insult.
This is me as a rider:
a) Always at pickup on time (or I message "be right there" if I'm a minute away)
b) I enter and say "Hi, how's it going?" and acknowledge.
c) I then put in my headphones for audible. I say nothing else the rest of the trip.
d) I get out where it's most convenient for them, and I say "Thank you", and gently shut the door.
Yep, apparently they don't care - my rating hangs out in low 4.7s.
However, Uber Black always boosts my ratings, because the drivers are more mature and rate based on what actually matters.
Here’s the thing: if someone doesn’t want to chat should that affect their access to a paid service?
With Uber you’re paying for a professional driver (they’re being paid, so they’re a pro by definition) to take you from A to B. There shouldn’t be any obligation to engage in anything but pleasantries.
I think I'm social enough, but who knows. I always respond with conversation when they're interested.
But this is their job, and I'm paying for the service with my money. It's not the passenger's responsibility or obligation to socialize with the driver. The passenger's responsibility is to be there on time, not mess up the car, and pay.
In my experience what's considered a good or bad rating seems to depend on where in the world you are. I've noticed that people seem to average lower ratings in Poland for example than the UK.
I took an Uber a few weeks ago (I don't often) and right when I got in the driver asked me I was new to Uber and if this was my second/third trip. I said no, I had taken it a good amount of times, just not often. He seemed surprised and said I had a 5 star rating, which he thought was rare for riders. At that point I didn't know I could see my own rating in the app but I looked and I do have a 5 star rating. This was only what one driver said in one city but I guess it could be rarer?
I've got a 5 star rating as well. I pretty much only take it from to and from the airport, I'm always on time at the spot I'm supposed to be and always tip. I just thought this was normal.
I'm sitting at 4.97 in LA - but I ride a lot. And my ratings scale for drivers is similar - 5 star for normal, compliments for things above that, <4 stars for "you did something obviously wrong, WTF" level service.
As for racial / protected class bias in ratings - I'm not sure what Uber would hit that something like Tinder wouldn't, since all the ratings are from other "users".
Posting racially-discriminating for-rent ads gets both the landlord and the newspaper in trouble. "We're just a platform" doesn't work as an excuse.
It's also not hard to detect statistically - with enough data you can see that a given driver is giving worse ratings to protected class members compared to similar drivers at the same time and place.
Riders can self-select into a protected class, maybe?
This will of course lead to a situation where some hooligans opt into a protected class just to mess with the system. Even still, on large number of rides it will even out.
But everyone is a member of a protected class. Some people might not be members of historically disadvantaged protected classes, but the relevant laws don't discriminate in that way. ('Men' is a protected class. 'Women' is a protected class. And 'Other' is a protected class, too.)
There's no such thing as protected classes in dating though, so I don't think it's a useful parallel. You're allowed to not date, say, people of other races if that's how your tastes run, but you're not allowed to discriminate against providing business services to people by race.
Is showing your profile to other people a "business service"? Because IIRC Tinder does some ML to show you people they predict you'll like (based on what other people with preferences similar to you liked) - and that would probably result in showing certain profiles to others less often.
Mine used to be a 4.78. Not sure what caused it to be like that. I tend to either chat with the driver, or I'll stay silent. I'll never take the water or candy. I feel like I'm owed something to them if I do.
My rating did go up after going to India. (Probably because of the numerous amounts of rides I took there)
It's hard to know why they rated you in that way for getting 4.57
Maybe phoned someone and talked too loud, or they missclicked.. Who knows, but try to get an answer for that "low rating", maybe you could know who gave you that rating and try to fix it.
I always sit in the front, it never occurred to me that this might be annoying for the driver. Is it?
When I've driven people around, even people I've barely met (say friends-of-friends), I've always preferred that they sit in the front. I was never a pro driver though.
I don't know if it's annoying for the driver but the only time I would even consider thinking of sitting in the front seat would be if I was in a group and we needed to use that seat to fit everyone.
Driving around even casual acquaintances (e.g. friends-of-friends) is a totally different dynamic where it would seem a bit odd for them to sit in the back seat as if you were their chauffeur even if you sort of are.
I prefer to sit on the front seat because it always has a working 3-point seatbelt. On the back, seatbelts are often the older 2-point seatbelts, tucked between the backrest and the seat so you can't reach it, or both.
I'd be curious to know what the passenger cut-off ratings are, and what thus what kind of behavior is actually kicking people off the app.
Also, if there's some inherent racial or other protected class bias in the kinds of ratings that people get, then Uber could be in a world of trouble here.