Just like when your mom told you to go sit in the corner for refusing to pick up your toys, Uber drivers say that when they repeatedly turn down ride requests, they’re given timeouts. [More]
ride-hailing services
Atlanta Puts Airport’s Ride-Share Proposal On Hold For The Moment
By 5.11.16
If you’re looking to hail a ride at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport any time soon, you won’t be hopping in an Uber quite yet: after seeing how Newark Liberty International Airport deals with ride-sharing companies, city officials are hitting pause on proposed rules that required drivers to submit to fingerprint-based background checks. [More]
Lyft Line Carpooling Service Expanding To Six New Markets
By 4.5.16
Sometimes, you might want a car to pick you up to get you where you’re going, but you may not necessarily want to pay for the whole trip. That’s why some ride-hailing companies offer carpooling options that allow passengers to share rides with strangers, and in turn, share the cost. More Lyft customers will have that choice soon, with six new markets slated to join the company’s Line carpooling service. [More]
Uber Driver Wakes From Nap To Find Passenger Leading Cops On High-Speed Chase
By 4.5.16
A lot can happen when you take a nap on the job, as one Uber driver found out when he fell asleep while taking a passenger on a 200-mile ride. He awoke to find the car in the middle of a police chase, with his customer at the wheel. [More]
Customer Claims Uber Driver Staged Vomit Scene To Collect Bogus $200 Cleaning Charge
By 3.3.16
If you own a car that you use to drive strangers around in, it’s a nasty, expensive surprise when one of your passengers vomits up their dinner/night on the town in your car. But one Uber customer says she was hit with a $200 fine for a phantom puking session that never happened while she and her friends were in the car. Instead, she claims the driver faked the whole thing just to collect the dough. [More]
Lyft Partners With Waze In Effort To Be Faster, More Efficient Than The Competition
By 1.26.16
What’s a ride-hailing company to do when it’s got a rival or two cruising around town trying to pick up the same customers it wants? It has to have a leg up on the competition. Getting passengers to their destinations quicker than other services is one way to beat out others, which is why Lyft is partnering with Google’s traffic app Waze. [More]
Uber Driver Allegedly Pulls Gun On Passenger Who Said He Might Toss His Cookies In The Car
By 1.26.16
It is undoubtedly unpleasant — nay, down right nasty, when someone vomits in your car. But just because someone says vehicular vomiting is a possibility, that doesn’t mean you should pull out a gun and order them to get the heck out of your ride, which is what police say one Uber driver in Florida did recently. [More]
Uber Will Get A Special Drop-Off And Pick-Up Area For Passengers Traveling To The Super Bowl
By 1.20.16
For the first time ever, Super Bowl ticketholders will be able to take an Uber to the big game: the ride-hailing company has put down a big chunk of money to snag a special drop-off and pick-up zone near Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, close to San Francisco. [More]
Need A Ride? Soon You Can Hail A Helicopter With Uber
By 1.18.16
Hate dealing with traffic, and have a big chunk of money just burning up in your pocket? You’ll soon be able to summon a helicopter ride using Uber, as part of partnership between the ride-hailing company and aircraft manufacturer Airbus. [More]
Couple Says Uber Driver Left Woman Stranded On NYC Sidewalk While She Was In Labor, Still Charged Her $13
By 1.12.16
If there’s one time in your life when you could really use a lift somewhere, it’s got to be when you’re preparing to birth a human being. But can an Uber driver who may be adverse to transporting a person in labor just leave you hanging? That’s what happened to one couple in New York City, who say that after the pregnant woman vomited on the sidewalk, their driver refused to give them a ride to the hospital… and charged $13 for the privilege of being stranded. [More]
Uber Cuts Prices In 100 Cities — But Don’t Expect The Discounts To Last Forever
By 1.11.16
It’s that time of year again, when the cold has seeped into your bones, and winter’s relentlessly gray sky has you huddled under a pile of blankets inside where it’s safe and warm. But if you’re holed up at home, how is Uber going to make money? By trying to draw customers out of their winter dens with steep discounts in a slew of cities. [More]
Facebook Users Can Now Use The Messenger App To Hail A Ride
By 12.16.15
In its ongoing effort to keep Facebook users inside the Facebook universe at all times, the social media giant is adding a new feature to Messenger that will allow folks to hail a ride with Uber and other on-demand car services from within the app. [More]
Uber Testing Color-Coded Light System To Help Passengers Find The Right Ride
By 12.3.15
A few weeks ago, I hopped in the back of an Uber vehicle after it pulled up right in front of me, thinking it must be the car I’d ordered to this exact spot, arriving on time just as the app said it was. But then my actual driver called my phone, and the man behind the wheel asked if my name was Kristy (it isn’t). Uber is testing a way to keep such mixups from happening with a color-coded light system to help passengers find their ride. [More]
Uber, Lyft Given Final Approval To Stay In Portland After City Council Vote
By 12.3.15
What a difference a year makes: it’s been almost 12 months since Uber and officials in Portland, OR agreed to work on new rules together to allow the company to operate in the city, and now, those rules have finally been approved, giving ride-hailing services the go-ahead to do their thing. [More]
Lyft & Verizon Partner Up To Offer Free DeLorean Rides To NYCers On Oct. 21
By 10.20.15
Marty McFly probably didn’t need a time machine to predict that where there’s a popular, revered movie franchise, there will be plenty of publicity stunts staged around it. As Oct. 21 approaches — the date Marty and Doc traveled to in Back to the Future: II — companies are falling all over themselves to get a piece of the attention, offering flux capacitors, commemorative Pepsi Perfect sodas and more. This time it’s Verizon and Lyft, who have joined forces to offer New York City passengers free rides in a DeLorean DMC-12 for the day. [More]
Uber’s “Safe Rides” Fee Now Varies Depending On Where You Live
By 10.16.15
Since April 2014, Uber passengers taking rides in the U.S. and Canada have paid a flat $1 “Safe Rides” fee, something the company said would go toward funding background checks, regular motor vehicle checks, driver safety education, and insurance. Depending on where you live, however, that fee could increase soon. [More]
Uber Testing Feature That Suggests Safe, Convenient Pickup Spots When Customers Request A Ride
By 7.8.15
While car service customers have the power to set their pickup location as precisely as they want to — either by entering a specific street address or dropping a pin on the mobile app’s map — that doesn’t mean it’s always a safe or easy place to get picked up, depending on traffic, or a place with space for a driver to wait. After some prodding, Uber will now implement a feature that recommends safe and convenient pickup spots when riders request a car. [More]
Uber Testing App Enhancements That Help Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Drivers
By 5.28.15
We’ve covered in the past Uber’s problems with the ride-hailing service’s disabled passengers, which range from ride snubs to service dogs forced to ride in the trunk. It’s worth keeping that in mind when you learn about Uber’s latest change to their driver app to accommodate a different community of people with disabilities: the service is testing changes to its system that make driving for the service possible for people who are deaf. [More]
