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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

> Uber...has more or less completely fixed the issue of racism in taxi cabs

When I first moved to New York, I had a roommate. He was Brown educated, on prominent City boards and sharply dressed. Regularly, I'd have to climb out of bed and walk to our corner of 30th Street and 5th Avenue, a decent neighbourhood, to hail him a cab.

The reason? He's black.

I got used to quibbling with cab drivers over "broken" credit-card machines (magically resurrected when I threatened to call the TLC, their regulator). And dealing with my out-of-borough destinations being inconvenient. Or having drivers on their phones the whole way.

Yellow Taxis have gotten measurably better since Uber entered the scene. Credit owed where it's due.

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I live in the South Bay, and every time I try to take Uber to SFO, the driver arrives, finds out the destination is SFO, apologizes, and cancels the ride. So apparently the problem is not fully solved.

Isn't SFO a good fare? It's a long drive from the South Bay, and the driver is certain to find another passenger quickly after dropping you off.

Maybe I don't understand what makes a good fare.

They have somewhere to go to and by the time they drop you off at SFO, they wont be able to make their appointment. Or they don't want to be stuck in inefficient traffic.

Also incentives are based on trip count, not trip length as far as I understand.

It's a problem that needs to be fixed in big cities with these apps.

But the reason why they reject in these cases has nothing really to do with the person, but the action/destination. Definitely an improvement.

Yeah, that really surprised me when I saw an ad for driver recruitment that the initial incentive is a trip count one. Sure they have some anti-abuse system in there, but seems like a weird one to lead with in big cities where you could rack up 20 short trips in quick succession.

At least they apologize. I've noticed a recent trend with bay area Uber drivers calling immediately after accepting the ride, asking the destination, and trying to strong-arm me into cancelling the ride if they don't feel like trip is worth it (the answer of course is hell no dude). I've been curious whether there has been a recent major change on their side of the app.

I don't think it's gotten any better as far as cracking down on drivers. When I try to get picked up at NYC area airports, if the driver calls right away and asks where I'm going, I hang up, cancel and report them for violating the TOS, and request a refund (which I've always gotten).

Drivers are able to do this because they can't be rated if the trip is canceled.

Passengers should never cancel accepted trips. That's what I explain to my passengers when they complain about other drivers doing this.

I never cancel my trips if the passenger is ready to go (some are too drunk or otherwise unable). Drivers who cherry pick can still be reported, but that's a manual process.

The leading cause for driver deactivation is excessive cancel rate. For that reason, the passenger should insist that driver cancel the trip.

I run into this when I call the passenger to confirm that they indeed wanted to order Plus service and that they are willing to wait 15-20 minutes for me to get there. They often think I am calling to cancel, but I never ask the destination since that's at least unethical and possibly illegal.

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