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Comment by lhopki01 | Hacker News Reader

Uber since Uber: * Take a round about route to hike up the price with some made up excuse about an accident. * Driving dangerously because you're on 5 apps and hitting cyclists

Taxis, Uber, they're all the same. Give me public transport anyday.

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> Take a round about route to hike up the price with some made up excuse about an accident.

never experienced this. does that actually work? I thought the initial quote was binding.

> Driving dangerously because you're on 5 apps and hitting cyclists

I've certainly had some aggressive uber drivers, but nothing that stood out as less safe than the typical cab experience.

public transit is great when it goes where you need it to. unfortunately I live in the US so...

With the exception of California, the initial quote is indeed binding

Secondly, uber drivers have ratings (unlike cabs) and a set of consistent low ratings for dangerous driving will flag the dangerous behavior

Here in London it's not binding unless you share the ride with another passenger, then it's a fixed fee. But you can look at the route after and if it's a problem, you just give 4 stars instead of 5, which means they'll probably never drive again...

So there's a strong incentive for them to act properly - unlike a black cab where they know full well they'll never see you again.

I tried giving lower ratings and I've tried complaining to Uber. Even in cases where the route is clearly 3 sides of a square that involved 3 times the distance (and 3 times the price) they still side with the driver. I've had trips to the airport on Uber be more expensive than a Black Cab.

I can't give the rating if I'm the one being hit. Uber drivers will consistently pull out when they don't have right of way because they don't want to wait. When how you're paid is dependent on you driving from A to B as fast as possible it's going to encourage bad driving.

it seems like you are making two incompatible complaints in this thread: a) the payment structure incentivizes drivers to drive recklessly to complete the trip as fast as possible, and b) the payment structure incentivizes drivers to drag out a trip much longer than necessary to milk the fare. so which is it?

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