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What passenger information do Uber drivers see *before* they accept the pick up request?
What passenger information do Uber drivers see *before* they accept the pick ...
Posted 6 years, 6 months ago
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Milano Minis (MilanoMinis)
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The Guru Take
Only high level information about the fare is shown.
Updated (2/5/2018): The information seen by the drivers upon a fare request - before choosing to accept - change frequently, as Uber continues to make adjustments for various reasons. A lof of the information such as name, destination or rider contact information are not displayed in fear of drivers cherry picking their passengers.
- Rider rating
- Service / vehicle requested. (e.g. UberX, UberBlack, etc.)
- Pickup location (and how far), if the user allows it.
- Scheduled trip vs. Not (as scheduled trips are less likely to be cancelled and longer.)
- A warning for potentially a long trip.
Uber used to display the first name but they removed that in fear of gender discrimination. (Note: the above may differ slightly, depending on the service and your region. For example, in Philadelphia, they can't even show the user rating, but in Chicago, they can still see the passenger first names.)
After the drivers accept the request and have arrived (and swiped on "Arrived"), they will see more information such as the destination. However, at this point, the drivers could potentially cancel the request as well, say if they are not happy with an extremely long drive. They are not to abuse this however, as Uber does track the cancellation frequency.
*Information Uber has shown in the past (just as a reference)
- Pickup location
- Service / vehicle requested. (e.g. UberX, UberBlack, etc.)
- Surge rate (if there is one)
- Estimated duration of the requested trip
- Passenger ratings
- First name
ippei
1202
Uber Driver, CEO of TaxiFareFinder and Unleashed, LLC
Comments
How do I hide my location from being displayed? I am a rider.
The app already hides the passenger's exact location before pickup.
So just to be sure about this. The driver doesn't see my location until he accepts the ride. Is that right?
No, drivers do see your location before they accept the ride. They do not see your exact address that you may have entered, but they can see the distance and duration to your location and also your location on a map.
My apologies for being unclear. I should have said they cannot see your address but yes they can see your location even before accepting the trip.
Hi! Is it possible to know what information are avaiable to riders in every city at a different point of time? Reading your post it seems that at some point it seems that duration of the trip was avaiable at some point. Can you provide details on that? Basically my question is that if it exists a list of all updates and modification done in the Uber app (ideally by location since I know some feature are avaiable in some cities while in others they are not)
Unfortunately, that information is difficult to keep track of, and we must lean on individual drivers from around the nation to share their own experiences. Uber often releases its features and services in a phased approach, where they pick test markets first and expand from there. In most cases, these aren't publicly announced either.
Uber defines rules, regulations, service types, promotional campaigns, etc. for each market, so many of these decisions are made at the city level.
What makes it even more difficult is that for new features, they do not always segment by cities. Uber may pick certain neighborhoods within a city (e.g. say a suburb) or even specific demographic of the drivers.
Thank you ippei! Do you happen to know anything about some big cities in US (e.g. NYC, Boston, Washington, Chicago)? Do you know if there it was ever the case that they have more information than now (e.g. the duration as you were mentioning in the article). Thanks again, these features of the service are very interesting and your experience incredibly valuable!
The passenger information that is displayed at the time of the dispatch has certainly changed over time. You mention, "big cities", but for the most part, the information probably was updated around the same time across all cities. Yes, cities like Philadelphia and Chicago required the app to hide the passenger ratings ahead of others, but those are more exceptions than the rules.
Please do not quote me on the below, but I will try to share what I remember During the early years, perhaps in its initial version, the app showed the full name of the passenger, passenger ratings, and full pickup address. Fast forward to 2012~(?) timeframe, the app only displayed the first name of the passenger, the service requested, passenger ratings, and various information about the pickup, such as address and duration to get to that location.
In the more recent years, say 2016, I remember them removing the name completely. (They realized that the driver can identify female passengers or people of ce…
Read more...
The passenger information that is displayed at the time of the dispatch has certainly changed over time. You mention, "big cities", but for the most part, the information probably was updated around the same time across all cities. Yes, cities like Philadelphia and Chicago required the app to hide the passenger ratings ahead of others, but those are more exceptions than the rules.
Please do not quote me on the below, but I will try to share what I remember During the early years, perhaps in its initial version, the app showed the full name of the passenger, passenger ratings, and full pickup address. Fast forward to 2012~(?) timeframe, the app only displayed the first name of the passenger, the service requested, passenger ratings, and various information about the pickup, such as address and duration to get to that location.
In the more recent years, say 2016, I remember them removing the name completely. (They realized that the driver can identify female passengers or people of certain ethinicity.) They also removed the exact address as well, perhaps to avoid the driver identifying the user's exact address, say, of their residence. The location is now more dictated by the GPS and the pin locations, which can anonymize the users a bit more. Hence, at this point and in the current days, the app only shows the passenger ratings, type of service, distance and duration to the pickup location.
Here are some screenshots I was able to dig up:
Read less...
Thanks for the info! Very useful. I seriously thought they see more than that.
In some markets, Uber and Lyft are trying to show even less, where they don't even show you how far the pickup is. Tough, huh? They do this to reduce the chance of drivers cherrypicking.
Ironically, at the same time, they are also experimenteing showing the exact location of the rider AND showing the destination - all before accepting the ride. This will greatly help the drivers, of course, but there are usually a high bar for acceptance rates. This "gift' won't be available for drivers who cherry pick too much.
I'm just starting as an Uber driver. I don't like the idea of not knowing where I'm going to be driving to. I do not want to drive to the city of Boston! Ugh
Well I take short Uber trips from the store or places near my home. If the drivers knew this they would never pick me up. They would just cherry pick long fares.
wait, seriously? that's all they see? That's hilarious.
So most drivers call me when I order. Should I try to sound a certain way? Maybe like a girl? I'd imagine female riders are preferred. don't ask me why. I just think so.
Remember there are some variances of what the drivers can see depending on the location, per local laws and regulations. For example, in Philadelphia, drivers cannot see the customer ratings. (believe or not) In Chicago, drivers apparently can still see people's first names.
I know this post is a few months old but wanted to share this info. I drive in Philadelphia. I can see rider rating since I started driving 15 mths. ago.
to be honest? yeah. coz dudes can be assholes or violent. or may grope me.