It very well could be the case that people get more upset about waiting for the car than total travel time when they are already in the car. Ie, pick them up sooner even if travel time is longer. In fact, I would bet that this is the case.
Basically you have an irrational sense of progress even if things get delayed
In one case, the building was still being commissioned and it took a while for anyone to even realize they were stuck (could spawn a whole discussion about launch processes in itself).