Hacker News Reader

Comment by CamperBob2 | Hacker News Reader

The #1 pro tip with Uber is never, ever call for a ride unless you have clear blue sky overhead. Otherwise, because you can't enable the satellite view, it's hard to be sure what location is actually going to be reported to the driver. Location services can be way off base when GPS reception is poor, and in many urban settings an error of a hundred yards might as well be ten miles.

Uber could make life a lot easier for everyone if they'd just enable the satellite view, so you can verify that the driver will be sent to the location where you actually are.

(Edit: Instead of downvoting, consider explaining why I'm wrong. Maybe there's something extremely silly that I'm missing.)

View on HN

I'm not sure I understand this at all. You can move a pin to set your exact location in Uber and Lyft, you don't need to rely on GPS at all. Whether the directions supplied to driver get them there are accurate doesn't depend on GPS.

You can move a pin to set your exact location in Uber and Lyft, you don't need to rely on GPS at all. Whether the directions supplied to driver get them there are accurate doesn't depend on GPS.

If I don't know where I am on the map, what use is moving pins around going to be?

Case in point -- I was in Las Vegas recently, and made the mistake of calling Uber from under the covered walkway at a large casino/hotel entrance. The driver ended up being dispatched down a back road leading off into the desert behind the hotel. Because the map showed nothing but nearby streets, there was no way to tell that it was reporting my position incorrectly.

In the satellite view that's normally available in map-based applications, it would be very obvious that my reported location was nowhere near the hotel entrance.

I think the confusion is that the satellite view has nothing to do with the weather. It's not a live picture.

Correct, I'm using the term in its common colloquial sense of "Display of overhead imagery acquired by whatever means."

Around here, the "satellite" imagery seems to be captured by people flying small planes back and forth.

Ok, now I understand the confusion. When you said "unless you have clear blue sky overhead," it seemed like you thought the weather was important, like there is a satellite broadcasting video back down to earth that would be interrupted if it were cloudy. What you meant is that it's visible from above, not blocked by some kind of bridge or something.

And yes, that's absolutely true. I've been on streets that are right underneath bridge decks and drivers can't find. One way to avoid this is to set your pickup location to a business if one exists (i.e. a bar, hotel, restaurant), so the address is correct.

The misunderstanding seems to be because of "unless you have clear blue sky overhead". People (including me) thought that you meant clouds, rather than man-made overhangs.

Gotcha, thanks. :) Too late to edit, unfortunately, but I definitely see your point.

What I was hoping for was a comment like, "Hey, dumbass, press [...] and it'll turn on the satellite view. Everybody knows that."

Las Vegas isn't very Uber friendly. Most casinos have Uber pickups far away from the entrance and taxis. Same for the airport.

Can't you just contact the driver... via your phone?

If only there were an app that renders that sort of thing unnecessary. Somebody should look into that...

This is South Florida, 40% of the Uber drivers don't speak English well enough to drive and comprehend at the same time.

And my worry is automated cars with no steering wheel still rely on these mapping services. They aren't 100% accurate and if you don't have any controls you can't correct for that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com