Did you know that Uber records passenger ratings? 45% of my Uber
life has been spent oblivious to this fact. I just feel that every Did You Know
should be followed by a statistic, and now you’re a little more conditioned to
expect it too.I think I learned about this Uber feature from a coworker. On a side note, we’re all Uber fanatics here (and there’s nothing not to love about low rates, automatic payments, no tipping dilemmas, automatic payments again, and credit card points). Apparently it’s very easy to find out your passenger score; I know from personal experience! You send a quick email, and voila, 4.6 stars. Is that a good score? Is it bad? It’s very enigmatic, because you don’t know which rides dinged you and which dimension of being a passenger you’re naturally good at.
I’m serious; so the score factors whether you keep your
driver waiting on the curb, whether or not you’re overly unpleasant, and several other
things. You get matched with drivers who have similar ratings to your own – at
least that’s the rumor. So with the power of this knowledge, you may begin to
develop a fear that if you’re not chatty enough with your driver, you’ll end up
in a swervy, lost, and God-forbid non-black car in the future as a consequence.
The added pressure notwithstanding, I have genuinely loved chatting with Uber drivers, a great proportion of which have been friendly, phenomenally lighthearted, and well-paced conversationalists. I have sneakily gotten their insight into the Uber system
more than once and their stances run the gamut from happily and altruistically wanting to take new friends to their destinations, to suppressed anger regarding the low compensation and the overhaul effects on the taxi industry. I’m now a bit wiser to avoid engaging taxi-by-day Uber-by-night drivers on the concepts of marketplace and regulation.
One personally resounding addendum to driver-passenger chats is that car rides have positive effects on conversation-making in general. I'm inclined to surmise that superb quality occurs more often than in other environments, be the reason reduced expectations or lack of alternatives. Try this on/with your acquaintances!
Given the unique service that this app has provided, what a surprise to remember
that Uber is not ubiquitous, as we stood next to our broken down car in the middle
of Pennsylvania.
This, my friends, was a comprehensive overview
of my Uber experience to date.
