TromboneAl
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2006
- Messages
- 12,880
We used Uber several times in Portland, Oregon, and the system is so much better than traditional taxis that I can understand why cab companies are freaking out.
Every time we've decided to go by Uber, Jenny would bring the app up on her phone, and say something like "Okay, there's a driver around the block. He'll be here in two minutes." It was never more than four minutes. The driver knows where you are because of the GPS in your phone.
The cars have all been very nice and new. The driver takes you to the destination, and all of the payment stuff is taken care of by the app. You just get out and say thanks.
To be fair, I have to tell you about yesterday's bad/funny experience. Our driver hardly spoke English at all. He went through a red light, and didn't respond when we said something about it.
Then, I noticed that we were going south instead of north on the freeway. I told him and he pulled over to the side of the freeway!
Jenny and Lena and I had a discussion in our secret language (Swedish) and once we got going again and off the freeway, we said "You know, we've got some other things to do, so we think we'll get out here."
Jenny flagged the driver as unsafe and described the problems we had via the app, so I'm sure he won't be driving anymore. She uses Uber a lot, and hasn't had any other bad experiences. She hadn't noticed his rating (can't check after the ride).
We got a new driver within minutes, and were soon back at the AirBnB (another mind-blowing thing).
Al
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app
Every time we've decided to go by Uber, Jenny would bring the app up on her phone, and say something like "Okay, there's a driver around the block. He'll be here in two minutes." It was never more than four minutes. The driver knows where you are because of the GPS in your phone.
The cars have all been very nice and new. The driver takes you to the destination, and all of the payment stuff is taken care of by the app. You just get out and say thanks.
To be fair, I have to tell you about yesterday's bad/funny experience. Our driver hardly spoke English at all. He went through a red light, and didn't respond when we said something about it.
Then, I noticed that we were going south instead of north on the freeway. I told him and he pulled over to the side of the freeway!
Jenny and Lena and I had a discussion in our secret language (Swedish) and once we got going again and off the freeway, we said "You know, we've got some other things to do, so we think we'll get out here."
Jenny flagged the driver as unsafe and described the problems we had via the app, so I'm sure he won't be driving anymore. She uses Uber a lot, and hasn't had any other bad experiences. She hadn't noticed his rating (can't check after the ride).
We got a new driver within minutes, and were soon back at the AirBnB (another mind-blowing thing).
Al
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app