How'bout an unseemly real life topic. Experience with (whatchamacalit, not taxis) google says "ride-hailing" service
The known companies (me not naming). Here's the deal, I have a vehicle & know how to drive (not well, am motor unskilled and old), but only drive to the grocery place at most once per week and in daylight, have a *low* total of 10K miles on a 2020 model. But my need is for 3X weekly visit to "happy" hour for a scant 3 hours each, so need transportation, K? Had a friend of 40 years who, in the past 15 drove my vehicle to handle that, but covid hit and that was that. ----------Hey! This is context for communicating, embarrassment be chipped where it might.
*** So, for somebody unfamiliar with the process, you download a nifty app, register your basics ID and billing, and that's it. When you're ready to go, you Request a ride with whatever option for amenities and billing (special comfort more expensive, Wait cheaper). I always take Wait, happy hour not an emergency, besides seems like they get here same as super soon. Convenient no cash transaction, reducing risk. And it's all GPS. All safety features, no cash and disappearing addresses/names, rules for conduct, ratings 5-stars both rider and driver.
*** So, what could be wrong? Well, it goes both ways - there can be bad behavior either way by riders or drivers. Both have the right to rate each other, sort of like the Alert system that can be abused by maliciousness the way Dear Leader is abusing the prosecution system of the country. Turns out that the 5-stars paradigm is a big deal, every missing 10th of a star turning into a big deal. I early learned to lodge the full 5 for everybody since bottem line they got me to the going/coming destination no matter what. There are categories of "clean car? friendly? safe driving? and more). All the ratings are averaged out for rider/driver overall, like is this a 5-star person or not? Option to Cancel & request another.
So out of the 1,400 rides in the post covid experience, only about 5 have been bad interactional drivers for me, pretty good, but when they're bad they're bad. Also, just sidebar, a hefty percentage of the windshields are cracked understandably for all the driving, just a topic of conversation. Surprisingly, almost all of the vehicles are upper value brands and types. Have been in brands I'd never thought, plus a fair share of monster trucks. I've messaged the service not to send me Teslas (for my politics).
**** So really it's been 2 or 3 years of smooth sailing, maybe an occasional peeve but not bad enough to complain. But last week got a klinker, somebody in her 30s with an *edge*, sort of High Maintenance attitude about having to stoop to this job and deal with lowly Suppliants. Now, the interactional experience can be all "business" not talking and acting like we're all robots, or like my Retired/limited-socialization talking to whomever/grocery cashiers, talking to humans. Both ways, if driver or rider don't like to talk, fine, you can read the room in the first 15 seconds. So this driver immediately said she goes by GPS only, doesn't want directions, fine. But anyway, after the first shut-down, she made the effort to do some back-and-forth talking, and we zeroed-in to interactions of riders and drivers, how sometimes there's no talking, works both ways, her saying a rider had downgraded her rating just for greeting. She seemed to drop some attitude, then said she was going to drive all night because she needed the money, that the company pays a ridiculous amount of nothing, that she recently had to sell her business and had gone through some personal problems. Fine. I said that night driving with unknown people calls for extra carefulness. At the destination she said that maybe she would be the driver at the 3-hour pickup. I just said to be careful.
Inside my destination I gave her the 5-stars and no comments. Imagine my surprise to get a message from the company that the terms of service needed to be reviewed. Call me silly, but I think this driver was malicious or clinically impaired.
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