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Comment by AmericanChopper | Hacker News Reader

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AmericanChopper

Yeah, quite a few times. Mostly in Jakarta and Bangkok. Common reasons include:

* Driver is hopelessly lost and stands no chance of getting to the destination

* Driver has no idea how to read a map

* Driver is obviously very inexperienced and can’t handle the chaotic traffic

* Driver is obviously too tired to drive safely (or reach the destination in a reasonable timeframe)

* Driver is too hungry to drive/read map/think at all (common in the afternoon during Ramadan)

* Driver is obviously high on meth or drunk (especially in Indonesia where there are no laws against driving under the influence)

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I’m genuinely not sure how you rack up multiples of these without reconsidering use of the service.

Having lived in Bangkok, I can say there weren’t great alternatives to Grab. Traditional taxis were as bad if not worse in my experience.

Well the only alternatives are driving yourself everywhere (which kinda sucks in Jakarta), or hiring several full time drivers (which I have done in the past). All of the taxi/ride share services here are unreliable. But if you want to live in a developing country, you really just have to accept the fact that most things are highly dysfunctional and unreliable.

I've had a Lyft driver in San Jose, CA, who was not able to navigate a closed freeway onramp. The GPS map told him to turn onto the onramp, but it was closed in real life. So he drove past it, the GPS routed him to make four right turns and come back around to the same onramp. He just kept going in that circle over and over like a robot, coming back around again and again to the same closed onramp. I'm not sure if he expected it to magically open up for him or what.

So I told him to either end the ride or follow my verbal instructions, basically take the side street up to the next freeway onramp. Once he got there, he completed the rest of the ride successfully.

How many times did he pass the onramp?

At least three times. I kind of lost count as I got this growing feeling of simultaneously being irritated and having pity for the guy.

Let me guess. You are a white guy in South East Asia.

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