INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
“Last year was pretty hard, I’m not gonna lie” says Peter Deng, Uber’s head of rider experience
But as part of new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s push to rebrand Uber around safety, “we’ve seen the company shift to more
listening”.That focus on hearing users’ concerns prompted today’s change
Have a bad Uber ride when you’re busy and you might neglect to rate the driver or accidentally rush through giving them 5 stars
Forcing users to wait until a ride ends to provide feedback deprives them of a sense of control while decreasing the number of accurate data
points Uber has to optimize its service.I had just this experience last month, leading me to tweet that Uber should let us rate trips
mid-ride:Uber apparently felt similarly, so it’s making an update
Starting today, Uber users can rate their trip mid-ride, providing a star rating with categorized and written feedback, plus a compliment or
tip at any time instead of having to wait for the trip to end
“Every day 15 million people take a ride on Uber
If you can capture incrementally more and better feedback
we’re going to use that feedback to make the service better” says Deng
Lyft still won’t let you rate until a ride is over.Specifically, the data will be used to “recognize top quality drivers
through a new program launching in June”, Uber tells me
“We’re going to be celebrating the drivers that provide really awesome service” Deng says, though he declined to say whether that
celebration will include financial rewards, access to extra driver perks, or just a pat on the back.But Uber will also now use the feedback
options that appear when you give a less-than-perfect rating to tune the technology on its backend
So that way, if you say that the pickup was the issue, it might be classifed as a “PLE – pickup location error”, and that data gets
routed to the team that improves exactly where drivers are told to scoop you up
To ensure there’s no tension between you and the driver, Uber won’t share your feedback with them anonymously until the ride ends.I
asked if reminding users to buckle their seat belts would be in that Safety Center and Uber tells me it’s now planning to add info about
It’s been a personal quest of mine to dispel the myth that professionally driven vehicles are invulnerable to accidents
That idea, propagated by heavy-duty Ford Crown Victoria yellow cabs piloted by life-long drivers in cities they know, doesn’t hold up
given Ubers are often lightweight hybrids often operating in places less familiar to the driver. The launch follows the unveiling of
Uber’s new in-app Safety Center last month that gives users access to insurance info, riding tips, and emergency 911 button
After a year of culture and legal issues, Uber needs to recruit users who deleted it or check an alternative first when they need
