from the sounds-like-a-Black-Mirror-episode dept.
Uber To Start Banning Passengers With Low Ratings
Uber has unveiled a new policy that enables the company to kick riders with low ratings to the curb.
For years, Uber allowed passengers to rate drivers on a star system, ultimately allowing customers to influence whether drivers can stay behind the wheel. Internal charts from 2014 published by Business Insider showed that drivers with ratings of 4.6 or below were at risk for the boot.
Though drivers could rate passengers, there was no equivalency in consequences. But now Uber's drivers will have a greater say about the behavior of passengers.
"Respect is a two-way street, and so is accountability," Kate Parker, Uber's head of Safety Brand and Initiatives, said in a statement released Tuesday. Parker added, "While we expect only a small number of riders to ultimately be impacted by ratings-based deactivations, it's the right thing to do." The shift will begin in the United States and Canada, the company said.
Also at TechCrunch and CNN.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @03:40PM (2 children)
I'm sure Uber will be happy to have this guy [nypost.com]. He obviously doesn't like Uber's competitors.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday May 31 2019, @03:54PM
No longer, Uber founders got their money [soylentnews.org].
Now they need to keep their drivers.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 01 2019, @12:00AM
never pick up a man wearing a blanket with his elderly mother. bad juju.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by stretch611 on Friday May 31 2019, @03:50PM (7 children)
Didn't leave me a big enough tip...
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday May 31 2019, @03:58PM
So, what the problem? After all, Uber is a technology platform, the service provider is the (contracting) driver: if he is not happy with the experience, then he's in his right to tag you. (large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snow on Friday May 31 2019, @04:00PM (2 children)
I thought that one of the 'features' of Uber was that you didn't have to tip.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ikanreed on Friday May 31 2019, @04:03PM
Yeah, but it turned out their employees were seriously underpaid, and it was becoming a PR problem, but they didn't want to take an even bigger loss of investor money in their quest to win a monopoly in the farrier industry.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @04:05PM
Uber drivers consider that a bug and not a feature.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @04:02PM (1 child)
To which I will respond by rating the driver low and stating "Driver asked for the tip to be split 75% cash, 25% via the app so Uber wouldn't know."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday May 31 2019, @11:20PM
Cool. That is how you get to the normal situation, in which you have taxi companies, with vetted drivers and serviced cars, but without overpriced medallions to choke the new entrants in the market.
As it should have been from the very start.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 31 2019, @04:15PM
Some movie about a Gentleman's club in Las Vegas or somesuch... owner was laying out the limits of acceptable behavior, lots of lines that cannot be crossed in lap dances, etc., but every single line had the proviso: "unless he leaves you a big tip, then that's O.K."
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 31 2019, @04:17PM (36 children)
I think the buy-in cost for a burner phone with service is under $50 these days - if you know you're going out for a wild night, that might be a good thing to have along for the Uber call...
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 31 2019, @04:56PM (20 children)
I *think* you're wrong. Not certain that you're actually wrong, but the last time I looked at burners, $50 was the lowest. Everything I saw when I looked was a "smart" phone. No one sells those dumb phones anymore, it seems.
Now, maybe, if I lived nearer a large city, with access to more stores, I could find burners for less than $50.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 31 2019, @05:41PM (7 children)
Also, bear in mind that what you need isn't really a burner phone so much as a burner SIM card, and the latest phones out of China all come with dual SIM card support, so you can easily switch to your burner SIM with just some taps on the screen of your regular phone...
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 31 2019, @05:52PM (2 children)
Damn - you just made me put two and two together!! Dual sim cards? THAT'S WHY GUBBERMINT HATES HUAWEI!! (sp)
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @06:24PM (1 child)
And now, at long last, Runaway can count to two.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Saturday June 01 2019, @02:51AM
Putting two and two together results in counting to two? And here, I thought zero was the additive identity. You're not trying to make me love Big Brother, are you? Two plus two makes four! There... are... four... lights!
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @09:15PM (3 children)
No your wrong, even if you use a different sim card the imei will be the same
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday May 31 2019, @10:48PM (2 children)
But, how is Uber going to get the IMEI number?
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 4, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday May 31 2019, @11:24PM (1 child)
All the Uber App needs is READ_PHONE_STATE [stackoverflow.com] permissions and Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your granny.
And, by the way, the Uber app has this permission by default [uber.com]:
And since they say it's "shared for fraud prevention," I expect that the app won't function without that permission.
(more info about that here [stackoverflow.com])
Out of curiosity, do you use the Uber app? I'm guessing not, since a valid credit card is also required to use the app.
Those are just two of the reasons (along with all the other scumbag stuff Uber does) that I'd rather walk than use Uber.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday June 01 2019, @02:10AM
Thanks for the feedback! Very informative, if I had mod points you'd get a +1 informative.
You schooled me and I appreciate it!
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AndyTheAbsurd on Friday May 31 2019, @06:27PM (11 children)
You need a smart phone to use Uber/Lyft anyway - their apps use data from the phone's GPS to coordinate pick up points.
You'll also need a "burner" e-mail address. And possibly credit card number. As you also need to provide e-mail (for receipts) and CC number (for payment) in order to use these services.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 31 2019, @06:55PM (10 children)
The CC number might be a little tricky, unless you can get some $200 "gift card" VISA cards and convince Uber that they are good enough to hail a ride with.
Burner e-mail addresses? Once, maybe 20 years ago, I signed up for a free e-mail address, via another free e-mail address, via another, via another, via another... it wasn't hard, all each one wanted was a confirmation via an existing e-mail address. And, I think there are some free e-mail services that don't even require that. If you do that carefully, via TOR or whatever, your e-mail can be pretty close to untraceable - certainly enough so to fool Uber into not connecting you with that guy who barfed all over the package tray and rear window...
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @07:06PM
Be sure to go back in and change the verification email address on the first burner account to the last one, creating a loop. It's one more step in making tracking the chain harder.
(Score: 3, Informative) by jasassin on Friday May 31 2019, @09:59PM (7 children)
Those pre-paid Visa cards are a bitch to activate! They want name, birthday, address and social security number. I assume it's to prevent terrorist activities or black market untraceable online purchases.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday May 31 2019, @10:28PM (3 children)
Sorry, I forgot to add that when you are putting the money on the pre-paid Visa at Wal-Mart (or wherever) make sure to read the back of the card for an activation fee, and add that to the total you are going to spend or you will be $1.50 (or whatever the activation fee is) short of being able to pay for your purchase.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 01 2019, @03:35AM (2 children)
Oh, I think every kind of gift card is the most idiotic thing invented since "Children's day." But, they do exist. I got mine from work instead of shopping from the company store with the atta-boy points I've accumulated over the last 5 years. Before that I won an Intel contest where they gave me a free laptop plus some cash cards to cover the tax consequences.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday June 01 2019, @04:30AM (1 child)
I'm curious, how you entered the contest, and what kind of laptop you got. Also, curious how many dollars in gift cards?
That's pretty awesome man!
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 01 2019, @11:23AM
It was outright weird - some tiny piece of Intel was promoting the new laptop chips back in 2007, the contest was barely promoted and only open to US residents, maybe 200 people entered world-wide but only about 20 were eligible US residents. To enter, you had to write a paragraph telling how you use Intel chips to enhance your life. My paragraph wasn't anything great, but I ended up winning (1/20 is pretty good odds - and most of the other paragraphs were even worse...) I got to pick the laptop, they wouldn't do the MacBook Pro because it didn't have the exact chip being promoted - so, I ended up with the Sony Vaio that Daniel Craig / James Bond used in Cuba that year... it was a piece of poo, too hot, too thin, fans got clogged with dust every 6 months, Windows Vista, but - not bad for writing a paragraph.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 01 2019, @12:03AM
and freedom. can't have the slaves thinking they're free human beings.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 01 2019, @03:31AM
I just got a few through work, now... work ID'ed me and put my name on the cards, so there was that, but for activation all you had to do was phone in and press 1, and after that, I could have easily enough sold them for cash to anyone, anywhere....
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 01 2019, @10:51AM
In Australia muslims were buying them by the batch to load up lots of cash then sending them to the middle east.
Crims were also washing money with them.
The government got jack of it so upped the ante for using them.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday June 01 2019, @02:17AM
It's even easier than that -- just get a burner email address: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=burner+email&t=lm&ia=web [duckduckgo.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @05:50PM (4 children)
Isn't Uber tied to a name, email and CC? I don't think using a burner, changing your phone number, is going to get you into the Rider Protection Program.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 31 2019, @08:09PM (3 children)
There are pre-paid Uber gift cards you can get in stores. Maybe you can pair that with a fake name account.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @09:00PM (1 child)
Sounds like a lot of work just not to get banned by Uber for acting like a douche bag. Wouldn't being a half decent person be easier?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 31 2019, @09:17PM
People might want to do that in the first place to avoid giving personal info to Uber.
Hail a cab? Combine the gift card with a half-off promo code and you might save some money.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 01 2019, @10:53AM
Works with Netflix. Turns out they just want my money.
Buy the card at the supermarket with cash. Logon to Netflix. Top up using the card.
Happy customer right here.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday May 31 2019, @06:46PM (9 children)
And you're paying for Uber with which credit card? Do they accept cash cards?
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 31 2019, @06:58PM (8 children)
I don't know if they accept cash cards or not, or, if they can even tell the difference...
I've gotten $100 cash cards as compensation a couple of times in the past 10 years - they seem to operate just like a normal MasterCard or Visa, and lots of merchants have those disclaimers saying that the merchant can't tell if your card is credit or debit... I'd assume that you can go out and buy a cash card like that if you wanted to.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday May 31 2019, @09:00PM (7 children)
Not sure about that. It's from 2014, but here's a website that expresses doubt [berkeleypayment.com]. I've had a few transactions refused over the years on prepaid cards, some were because the vendor took a pre-authorization for more than the bill (the article mentions those), and once was because prepaid cards are treated like debit cards and the merchant accepted only credit and not debit, but twice I've been told that the place just doesn't accept prepaid cards and they can tell the difference. That was a few years ago, though, since the last time it happened to me. Things may have changed.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday June 01 2019, @06:59AM (6 children)
I don't understand. Businesses refuse to take money from people who can prove they actually have it (prepaid card), but take it only only from people who borrow it (credit card)?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Chocolate on Saturday June 01 2019, @10:59AM (4 children)
With credit cards the business can get a load of information out of the customer's bank for their database. At a minimum their real name and postcode which is a step towards linking the person to a database entry with their full information. The data they capture is worth more than just a single transaction. So much so it is worth culling potential profit from people who hide behind gift cards and the like. It's the long game of data collection.
Hotels do this too. They refuse the use of gift cards and demand to photocopy a person's driver's licence or other identity document. The police and government do nothing about it as it makes it easier to track people down if required at a later date.
Welcome to the beginnings of a dystopia.
Bit-choco-coin anyone?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday June 03 2019, @04:38PM (3 children)
Beginning?
And how dare you mock our wonderfully integrated world!!! Why, what are you, a Commie or something??? How can you possibly expect to enter the singularity with your uppity notions of privacy and all is beyond me. The only way forward is if you withhold no secrets from your corporate and governmental overlords.
(hopefully you smell my cynicism through the monitor.... and that is coming from someone who does believe that communities and groups are important for our survival.)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Chocolate on Tuesday June 04 2019, @03:08PM (2 children)
Did we learn nothing from the End of Evangelion?
Bit-choco-coin anyone?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday June 05 2019, @09:17PM (1 child)
Don't watch anime on acid? Or was that just me?
j/k
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 06 2019, @05:58AM
How about "Review anime before showing it in public in case a professor walks into the auditorium just as the only vaguely sexual scene involving a young man, his not-girlfriend and a hospital room, comes on resulting in said professor kicking your anime club off the campus".
Or something like that.
Urotsukidōji? Okay let's get that one*
* This actually happened.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday June 03 2019, @04:35PM
No, you understand. It makes no sense, but you understand.
(Actually, one circumstance where it makes sense is if you want to take recurring payments. Yes, a credit card does have a credit limit and can be cancelled, too. But having a credit card implies that you have a revolving fund of credit, where a debit card says you only have X much fixed assets available even if you do reload it).
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 31 2019, @04:52PM (1 child)
to start banning Uber. More news at eleven!
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Friday May 31 2019, @06:30PM
I already banned Uber from my life.
Considering doing the same to Lyft.
Not quite ready to go back to having to call a taxi company and figure out what the actual street address of where I am is, though. If a real taxi company in my area offered an experience as good as Lyft's, I'd happily pay the higher price for the handful of times per year that I use such services.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @05:26PM (4 children)
First it's the "assholes."
Then it's the "Nazis."
Then it's the "Reactionaries."
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @05:52PM (3 children)
Eventually it's the hyperbolic anonymous cowards.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @06:43PM (2 children)
Explain how it is hyperbole given the current crackdown and deplatforming online? This will be just a natural expension of the trend.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @11:33PM
Even though you're trolling (or haven't taken your lithium today), I'll bite.
There's a qualitative difference between censorship and 86-ing [urbandictionary.com] someone for being disruptive (whether that be in a taxi, a bar/restaurant, etc) or otherwise being an asshole.
Given your post, I'm guessing you've experienced that -- probably a lot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 01 2019, @12:01AM
First, it is not a straight variety - the deplatforming focuses on bent brains. You know? Like those that aren't thinking straight. So it's surely to be at least a quadratic.
Second:
1. it's not elliptical - I wish they were but, on the contrary, they are excessively verbose to the point of rambling rants
2. it may be circular sometimes - given the fact they use circular arguments and, typically. end where they started. But it takes effort from the outside world to force this behaviour, by asking them to have an argument and deplatforming them when they fail. Thus circularity is not in their nature. Besides, the circular is just a particular case of the elliptic.
In conclusion, by elimination, they are hyperbolic or parabolic - both are open ended, infinite trajectories.
Their use of dank memes may make and argument for a parabolic style, even if arguing this is quite tenuous - their memes aren't quite your off-the-shelf parabolas (say, for example, like christian allegories)
But their incessant push into extremes, peddling fear and outrage, is hyperbolic.
So, by and large. they are hyperbolic. Got it yet? [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @09:26PM (3 children)
Jeebus! They boot drivers with 92% or lower rating? Who do they think they are, Mensa? Top gun? While some of them -- maybe even many -- may be decent people, I seriously doubt whether driving random strangers around in your car is going to attract the best of the best of the best.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday June 01 2019, @02:20AM (2 children)
I don't use Uber or any of that lot, but I was wondering, is that 4.6/5 or 4.6/10? I thought about that for a moment and said "nah -- it's gotta be out of 10" but now I'm wondering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 01 2019, @03:40AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday June 01 2019, @04:15AM
Wow. Symptom of grade inflation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @10:08PM
With their social credit status controlling your daily life....
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Friday May 31 2019, @10:25PM (4 children)
Great, now what am I supposed to do when I’m out on a bender and can’t drive myself home? Call a cab?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday May 31 2019, @11:15PM
Or call a friend. Or call Bender!
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Friday May 31 2019, @11:37PM (2 children)
How about demanding that your municipality have decent public transportation?
Alternatively, you could have a designated decoy [urbandictionary.com] with you. Although that's riskier to both your freedom and the safety of yourself and others.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Saturday June 01 2019, @03:00AM (1 child)
if you've gone to the trouble of arranging someone not to drink to be your designated decoy, you might as well just have him drive you home...
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday June 01 2019, @03:30AM
But then you don't have the added pleasure of trolling the cops. And if there are more than a few of you, there's four or five cars to consider.
Besides, isn't exhilarating to wake up in the morning and not remember how you got home? Especially there's blood and hair on your grille. Good times!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 01 2019, @02:51AM