Comment by rossdavidh

Comment by rossdavidh 3 days ago

25 replies

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The last time I got an Uber, it was driven by a young fellow who looked to be in his first year of driving (I could be wrong), the car smelled like mothballs and was obviously in poor shape, and he accidentally drove on the wrong side of a divided road for a block or so (he was apologetic). The last time I tried a regular taxi stand, the car looked even worse, and it broke down. So, we called Lyft, and the driver could not find where we were because it was not a normal address (she was trying her best, but her English was not up to the task of understanding our explanation).

Waymo's selling point might be that its cars are all in good shape (right now), and customers know this.

PessimalDecimal 3 days ago

I've been in more than one Uber that smelled like the driver just smoked weed.

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  • mdaniel 3 days ago

    I formally report it every time I'm in a car that has the deodorizer turned up to 11 because it makes me nauseous. My worst one was a 30 minute ride to the airport in LA - I thought about just having them pull over and ordering a replacement

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    • WarOnPrivacy 3 days ago

      > I formally report it every time I'm in a car that has the deodorizer turned up to 11 because it makes me nauseous.

      This is a good thing. I do think we're much better off now than we were in the 80s-10s (relentless, pervasive over-fragrancing).

      But lately I've been running into the occasional Axe-weilder or odd desktop gadget that creates an airplane sized zone of unbreatable air. It might be time to dust-off some civil reminders about air quality.

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    • lupusreal 3 days ago

      Just say you feel carsick and want a window open for fresh air. They surely don't want puke in their car so they should be willing to oblige.

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      • mdaniel 3 days ago

        Oh I lean my head out the window like a dog, I am not their friend and give no fucks about offending them, but riding so long having to breathe in 65 mph wind just because a gas station toilet spilled in the car is a reportable offense

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      • shiftpgdn 3 days ago

        They get paid $300 (may be different these days) if you like in the car. The financial incentive for making you puke is quite high.

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        • kelnos 3 days ago

          I don't think that tracks. Not only do they have to incur the cost of getting the car cleaned, but while they're off getting it cleaned, they're also not accepting rides and taking in money. Not to mention it's just a huge hassle and waste of time.

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  • kilroy123 2 days ago

    I've had this happen many times. One time, I got into an Uber and it smelled like there were 100 kilos of cocaine in the trunk. Not joke, the car reeked of coke.

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shawn_w 3 days ago

Does Uber no longer fire drivers who don't consistently get 5 star trip reviews?

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  • harmmonica 3 days ago

    I have zero clue if they still do, but based on my experiences lately with Uber and Lyft there's zero chance they fire drivers even if they have terrible reviews. I'm an "always 5 star" type of reviewer (sorry if you think I'm obligated to be honest!), but, man, it's rough out there at least in big cities in the US. Sorry that's not reliably answering your question, but even if Uber said they fire those people I would not for one second believe them.

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    • kelnos 3 days ago

      > I'm an "always 5 star" type of reviewer

      Same. Only time I will rate lower is for safety issues. Offensive conversation and bad smells are not great, but I don't want to screw up what might be someone's only job because they're having a bad day or because they can't afford to get their car cleaned as often as they should.

      But I also don't judge people who would rate lower for stuff like that; everyone's threshold for what's acceptable is different.

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      • ApolloFortyNine 2 days ago

        I mean... It's crazy to read this in a thread complaining about the quality of ubers. I guess you didn't start the thread but your here all the same. It's this behavior that enables it.

        The last terrible Lyft I had had a 4.9, yet the car literally rattled and you could 'hear' the suspension (hard to explain, whatever the hell it was wasn't right).

        Guessing by the odometer being 220k and the sticker over the check engine light, it had likely been like that for a while.

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  • gWPVhyxPHqvk 2 days ago

    Part of the problem with this system is that I’m hesitant to give a driver less than 5 stars (unless they are truly dangerous) because I don’t want to take someone’s livelihood away.

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aerostable_slug 2 days ago

> her English was not up to the task of understanding our explanation

Another Waymo selling point is its universal (since they're all the same) ability to communicate with anyone.

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ninetyninenine 3 days ago

This is amazing. Don't forget that by you doing this you're taking us one step closer to AI replacing not just the job of drivers but the jobs of all of us. Good sides and bad sides.

Hopefully we won't get there and only uber drivers are the ones screwed. Since you and I aren't uber drivers, we don't really care do we?

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  • Philpax 3 days ago

    I'm for equal opportunity screwing: if they lose their jobs, it's only fair my job is at risk too - and given improvements in programming agents, it will be.

    The only way we're getting through this is by facing it together, not throwing the more precarious of us under the bus.

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  • rossdavidh 2 days ago

    I'm not actually convinced that "AI" will even replace all the jobs of drivers. Rumor is that Waymo had trouble in Austin (where I live) when they were centered downtown, because they would gridlock. I'm not convinced that they will work well once they become common on the roads, because they will all drive cautiously, and that may lend itself to gridlock situations. Right now they're in the SE corner of town (also where I live), and they don't seem to gridlock, but the first thing they do is almost always to go to another part of town. They will likely have a useful place, but I'm not convinced that it will pay enough to keep the cars in good shape, long term. The cars are all new, right now, but what happens when they get old and start to malfunction? Will they be making enough money to pay for that? Right now they might (like Uber and Lyft before them) just be burning through VC money, without any prospect of profitability.

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  • OkayPhysicist 2 days ago

    Imagine how backwards our socioeconomic order is that "people are no longer needed for grueling work" is a bad thing.

    I mean, you're not wrong, but I feel like it's a condemnation of out economic system.

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    • ninetyninenine 2 days ago

      Driving is not grueling work. Imagine a utopia where people aren't needed for any work at all! No job for you. Only AI robots taking care of rich people while everything else burns. Just make sure you're one of the rich ones and everything is A-okay!

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      • lotsofpulp 2 days ago

        Sitting for extended periods of time is bad for one’s health. Also, being in a vehicle is the highest morbidity/mortality risk thing people do. More time on the road = more chance of injury.

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