Uber iOS App Could Soon Include Augmented Reality Directions for Finding Your Driver

[paulovsouza]

I think it should be the other way around. I can always find my Uber, they’re the ones that pass by me, and make me walk 3 blocks to them.

 

[brucewayne]

Will it add green circles and dollar signs above their heads to denote the best paying fares?

 

[hybrid_x]

How about improving the GPS on the app to help the driver find me.

So many times I've called an Uber or Lyft and the driver is halfway down the block, on the other side of the street. It shouldn't be the customer's job to find the car.

 

[jakebrosy]

I got a better idea.

How 'bout the dude I'm paying to drive me around comes and finds ME! I put a pin within 10 feet of where I'm standing for Crikies sake. Why on gawd's green earth is the dude one block over and on the other side of 11th Avenue? And waving at me to come over there?

Guess what gets you a one-star review and $0 tip. Your first two guesses don't count.

(I just got out of a Honda Odyssey that pulled that crap so I'm a little cranky.)

 

[thefourthpope]

Hey, if Apple can patent round edges, then why not this?

Agreed. Silly examples abound.

 

[thefourthpope]

Uber driver here. We don't have the precise location or picture of the passenger. The only information given to the driver is the location of the pickup request (the pin on the map, not your actual physical location) and your first name. That's it. Our job is to go to the pin. Even if you turn on location sharing, which only about 5% of passengers do, it's wildly inaccurate because most people wait inside for their ride and so it can show it blocks away. Plus even if you ARE blocks away, we can't start the ride until we're close to the pin (requested pickup point), so your location doesn't matter. Our job is to go to the pin, not your location. Put the pin in the right place and you'll get a driver at the right place. Don't go just based on address, actually look at the map and pin location, and drag the pin to exactly where you want to be picked up, while you're requesting the ride. If you only give it your address and let it drop the pin wherever it decides, sometimes it'll be on the wrong side of the street/intersection, or sometimes it'll be at the wrong entrance to the building.

Edit: and be as specific as possible. I HATE pickups that are like "12th and Market." It puts the pin in the middle of the intersection. That gives me a 25% chance of being on the correct corner. Actually move the pin to the corner you'll be standing on. Better yet, since intersections are an extremely dangerous location to stop, walk half a block or look for an area nearby that's easier to stop and pull over, and put the pin there. I end up cancelling at least half of intersection pickups as "dangerous pickup location," which just delays your pickup because then it reassigns you to another driver who may also cancel for that reason.

Love all of these suggestions. I don’t Uber much anymore (even before COVID) but am glad to know how things work on ‘your’ side of things.

 

[sentiblue]

I work from home for more than a decade now. I use Uber/Lyft on a regular basis simply because my rides are always short and I get to ditch my car, which gets rid of payment/insurance/gas costs.

After using it for so long I kind of don't understand why they don't make their app to work with AppleCar and Android Auto. There's a lot of drivers with these options in their cars. The drivers always have to mount their phone on the dashboard and interact with the phone.

 

[seinman]

I work from home for more than a decade now. I use Uber/Lyft on a regular basis simply because my rides are always short and I get to ditch my car, which gets rid of payment/insurance/gas costs.

After using it for so long I kind of don't understand why they don't make their app to work with AppleCar and Android Auto. There's a lot of drivers with these options in their cars. The drivers always have to mount their phone on the dashboard and interact with the phone.

They can't because Apple and Google are so strict about which types of apps are allowed to use CarPlay and AA, for safety reasons. Rideshare apps are not permitted. Until Apple and/or Google changes their policies, that's how it's gonna be. And trust me, it's not for lack of requests from drivers; TONS of drivers want this feature, but Apple/Google won't budge so far. Some of us even jailbreak our phones to have Uber Driver on CarPlay, but then Uber Driver updates to detect the jailbreaks and locks you out if you do it (so you can't spoof GPS to scam the system).

 

[AndreyGurov]

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