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Comment by hol | Hacker News Reader

“I’ve noticed lots of Lyft drivers dropping the signature pink mustache from their cars. Many also don’t bother with the fist-bump introduction, another Lyft convention.”

This is very noticeable now. Lyft used to stand for a different customer experience to Uber, but now it's effectively the same. It's sad (although probably inevitable) that their growth has lead to such a dilution of their brand.

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The fist bump was always awkward. This isn't Couchsurfing, you're not my buddy and we're not about to share some profound life experience together. I'm not going to get out of your car in 10 minutes with your contact and a promise to grab a beer.

This is strictly a quid pro quo transaction - nobody is going around riding Lyfts to meet interesting people, except maybe journalists hunting for a story. And nobody is out there driving Lyfts to meet interesting people... except maybe journalists hunting for a story. Let's not pretty it up with SV-style faux-populism.

Friendliness and mutual respect? Absolutely, the same respect and courtesy you'd show to any other human. But let's be real about the other stuff.

The fist bump got dropped because neither the drivers nor passengers cared about the fist bump.

I always specifically avoided Lyft because I thought they would all show up with a stupid pink mustache on the car and fist bump me like we were bros. And all I wanted was a smooth transport for my wife and I.

I thought the fist bump was awkward, but I would disagree with your statement that nobody drives around to meet interesting people. Most of the drivers I meet actually say that's a big part of the appeal.

He didn't say nobody drives around to meet interesting people, he said nobody rides for that reason.

He said both

I think its quite possible that lyft's schtick was a key aspect that kept it in the game. And the more social experience was a key differentiator. Sure its subsiding but i woukd not discount its importance.

> The fist bump got dropped because neither the drivers nor passengers cared about the fist bump.

I hate to tell you this, but not everyone is a button-down or a neckbeard. I liked the casual friendliness of it.

> nobody is going around riding Lyfts to meet interesting people

I wouldn't actively go grab a Lyft just for that purpose, but when some friends and I are a bit tipsy and heading out to the club? Absolutely we'd rather be in a fun environment with an interesting person.

Eh, casual friendliness is one thing, telling all of your employees/contractors to fist-bump customers is something else.

Don't get me wrong, I like things to be casual - in fact I find Uber's customer experience to be too far on the other end of the spectrum. "Yes sir", "of course sir", "would you care for some water, sir?" - blech!

I also enjoy chatting with my drivers, because hell, I might learn something.

But if my driver's having an off day and just wants to get me from A to B? That's fine. If my driver just isn't the super-chatty type? That's fine too. Expecting everyone performing a service for you to be bright, chipper, energetic, and ready to spill the beans on all manners of subjects, all the time strikes me as unreasonable - an attempt to create a social bond where none has been earned. Are we so devoid of meaningful social contact that we must try to artificially induce it by decree for paying customers?

Let's not forget that the fist bump - like the pink mustache - is not some organic thing that developed in the "community", it's an instruction from headquarters.

> "but when some friends and I are a bit tipsy and heading out to the club? Absolutely we'd rather be in a fun environment with an interesting person."

Does the interesting person want to be in the same environment as you? Does the interesting person find this environment at all fun? Has it occurred to you that people drive around drunks on Fri/Sat nights for a living, not for fun?

I mean shit, is this guy a driver or a court jester?

> Eh, casual friendliness is one thing, telling all of your employees/contractors to fist-bump customers is something else.

Totally. You're not wearing the minimum pieces of flair again, right? That whole concept of forced friendliness makes me ill.

Yea, definitely the fact that it's not organic makes it go from potentially cool to cringey.

Their brand image was and is severely problematic and honestly should be viewed as a liability, in my humble opinion at least.

Or maybe I am the only one that prefers simple no-bs customer experiences over kitsch and hipster-bro nonsense. I would pay a $3 surcharge to avoid all pink furry things and fist bumps honestly.

Lyft could really benefit from a decisive and purposeful rebranding.

It repulses me. Mustache rides and fist bumps?

Mustache rides

That never even occurred to me.

Wow.

Disclaimer: I've never used Lyft and the following is purely hearsay:

In the area I live in (where we've got Uber(x), Hailo, and Lyft) there was word that cars that had the pink mustache were being targeted by taxi drivers for harassment, so I think they pulled them off for safety.

Uber has slipped in terms of standards too. They have been adding drivers like crazy in my area and apparently to save time they have stopped meeting new drivers in person all together. The driver I got didn't get the memo about having a clean car. It was his first day on the job and the interior had all his personal junk in it as well as a bunch of garbage from fast food visits past strewn about. It was truly disgusting.

The great thing about Uber versus Taxis - is that you were able to downvote him down, and presuming others do as well - he will no longer be driver for Uber for much longer.

Compare that to crazy taxi drivers with really terrible cars - they stay in the system for many, many years.

You can provide feedback to Taxis, but they normally have the system of needing to reference a license number or ID number, and you probably have to either ring their office, or put something in writing. That's too much hassle for most people, so bad drivers tend to stay on until they do something seriously bad or illegal.

Exactly. With Uber/Lyft you provide feedback on each and every driver. (And, of course, they do likewise with you).

That's one of the key innovations that Uber/Lyft have brought, (the other one of course being a Unified Geo-Dispatch system in any city that they serve)

For sure, and I certainly did give feedback in that regard. Made me wonder though how many riders reporting a bad experience it would take to get the guy off the road and to correct the situation.

A guy who took me to the airport last week said Uber kicked his friend out of UberX after the rating fell below 4.4.

Their flow for reporting bad experiences is categorized, so I'd imagine "unsafe driving" is weighed more than "car smell".

I'd bet a bit part of this is law enforcement targeting these cars in certain cities. The mustache is an absurdly easy way to see which cars should be pulled over.

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