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Comment by xrd | Hacker News Reader

100% this. I used to love to go to NYC and ride in the taxis. Such interesting people. Now, I get into a car and have to pretend I'm happy there are mints because they don't want to be poorly reviewed. When no one had to care about reviews, people could be real, and occasionally uncomfortable, but always authentic. Those days are long gone and fuck Uber for destroying that.

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All my pre-uber memories of taxis in NYC are negative. The drivers drive super crazy, accelerating and breaking a ton because the meter pays them a higher rate if they hit a certain speed. I enjoy uber much more and still meet interesting people.

Uber drivers in NYC are just as bad as taxi drivers in my experience.

Yeah and outside of NYC and a few other cities you just ended up stranded because one never showed up or more likely people just drove drunk.

I dont go in taxis/uber to make friends.

I think you misunderstood the commenter. Having a genuine conversation with a stranger doesn’t really ever mean that you’re going to turn that into a friendship. It’s quite normal to connect with someone in passing and leave it at that.

"make friends" is a saying. It doesn't literally mean to make actual friends.

Regardless. If I'm taking an uber/taxi/etc, I want to get to my destination safely in a reasonable time, in a clean vehicle. If the driver strikes up a friendly conversation that's fine. But its definitely not what I am in the car for. If the driver is silent for the entire trip, that is also fine as long as they get me where I need to go.

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