Two 4.7's equal 1 awkward ride

As I have stated here before, pools are a lottery. Sometimes you hit the jackpot, more often you get nothing.

Something a lot of people don't know about ride sharing is that ratings go both ways. When riders complete a ride they rate the driver, this is obvious to most. But what is not known to all is drivers rate passengers too. Most people have ratings somewhere in the 4.8-4.9 range. I think this is because drivers are more sensitive to ratings and give 5 stars by default, at least that is my normal move.

So when you get a rider with a score of 4.7, that is pretty bad. Like really bad. Like, what the fuck did you do to make drivers hate you bad.

I started looking at rider ratings a bit more, mostly as a curiosity. Then I formed a working theory that perhaps putting 2 low scoring riders together in a pool leads to the more awkward or rides. Having tested this for a couple weeks I am here to tell you, two 4.7's= awkward. Also, an opportunity to kinda mess with these people. To delve deeper and try to get them talking.  Challenge accepted.

Waze for the advanced driver only, novices beware.

Part of being a driver is navigation. It may seem this is perhaps the only part one must really master. As a curious observer, and a competitive mind, I have queried those I come in contact with regarding this and other traits among my driving peers. It seems that there are quite a few operators on the road who have major trouble in this aspect of the job. I have come across many myself. In fact, the reason I have always tended towards Uber as a rider is because of some non-professional rides I found myself on. For me the transaction is simple. I, the rider, tell you where I want to go and you take me there. You, the driver have one task. As with taxi's, in my mind as a patron, I always felt giving cross streets should suffice as a start for you, the driver, to get me where I want to go. It seems that this is not always the case.

The issue arrises from the fact that ride sharing, as a business opportunity, represents incredible monetary upside to near anyone with a beating heart and a car. I have come across many a driver in San Francisco commutes from locales as far as 100 miles away to frequent our fair city with their eyes on the $$$. Alas, many of these willing transporters know little to nothing of the local geography. It would seem this deficiency would be remedied through the use of technology and simple direction, but I am here to tell you that is not the entire story.

I use Waze. This, I have found is the best navigation application. I say this because it tends to give directions as if the app was a local person with 40 years SF residency under its belt. That said, this app will give you some crazy routes with the hopes of saving you precious minutes in transit. I have lived in this city for nearly a decade and know my way around fairly well. That said, there are times when this piece of technology will give you routes which, in my opinion are for the advanced driver only. When done with finesse and a little bit of finagling, these routes will save you those minutes. But novices beware, taking some of these more advanced journeys with only a few mistakes in timing will cost you, and your passengers far more time than they would have saved.

To the folks at Waze: perhaps you should add a difficulty level to the suggested route so these out-of-towners don't lose stars with their customers...