I’m a Lyft Driver. My Passengers Act Like I’m Part of the App(wired.com)
wired.com
I’m a Lyft Driver. My Passengers Act Like I’m Part of the App
https://www.wired.com/story/im-a-lyft-driver-my-passengers-act-like-im-part-of-the-app
16 comments
As a relatively anti-social person, at least when it comes to strangers, one of the main reasons that I prefer Uber to Lyft is purely down to the fact that I've personally experienced Uber drivers to more frequently behave as if they ARE part of the app. I ALSO behave as if I'm part of the app. Please just consider me a parcel that you're picking up and dropping off. I'm not dehumanizing the driver, I just prefer the process to be dehumanized altogether.
A really interesting article but in this instance I'm not convinced it's the app that's the problem. Dehumanisation has been around forever and fluctuates depending on wider societal factors.
It's hard to see how this has anything to do with the app. Although it was almost certainly fake, HBO had a show called "Taxicab Confessions" back in 1995 claiming to be real rides filmed with a hidden camera in which the passengers did and said things no one would ever admit to if they expected to ever see the driver again. It has been a trope since well before smart phones became a thing. As Robin Hanson was quoted in this article saying, people not exactly treating service staff the way they treat their friends is not unique to app-mediated transactions.
I've never really lived in a city where cabs were much of a thing, but had a limo for prom, been in buses. People have been having sex and doing drugs in the Greyhound for decades, acting not only like the driver isn't there, but the other passengers aren't, either. It's arguably even worse with a limo, with the privacy shield trying to give you the illusion the driver legitimately doesn't exist at all.
How do you think the janitors at your school felt? What things did they see? Landscapers at your corporate campuses? What about hotel staff? I can hardly remember the number of times one of us forgot to put up the Do Not Disturb sign and a maid walked in on my wife and me.
Thinking about when this was the worst, nothing could ever compare to having a girlfriend in high school. We had public sex all the time, but why? Because we had no privacy at home. Where else were we supposed to do it? I'd rather be seen by a total stranger than my 5 year-old sister. People need me time and couples need we time. If you spend most of your day in a house full of kids or an office full of coworkers, when is that time supposed to come? A commute could potentially be that, but if you find yourself having to rely on someone else to drive you, you might just behave as if you're alone anyway because it's still the best you're gonna get.
I've never really lived in a city where cabs were much of a thing, but had a limo for prom, been in buses. People have been having sex and doing drugs in the Greyhound for decades, acting not only like the driver isn't there, but the other passengers aren't, either. It's arguably even worse with a limo, with the privacy shield trying to give you the illusion the driver legitimately doesn't exist at all.
How do you think the janitors at your school felt? What things did they see? Landscapers at your corporate campuses? What about hotel staff? I can hardly remember the number of times one of us forgot to put up the Do Not Disturb sign and a maid walked in on my wife and me.
Thinking about when this was the worst, nothing could ever compare to having a girlfriend in high school. We had public sex all the time, but why? Because we had no privacy at home. Where else were we supposed to do it? I'd rather be seen by a total stranger than my 5 year-old sister. People need me time and couples need we time. If you spend most of your day in a house full of kids or an office full of coworkers, when is that time supposed to come? A commute could potentially be that, but if you find yourself having to rely on someone else to drive you, you might just behave as if you're alone anyway because it's still the best you're gonna get.
Hard to swallow I guess but you are part of the app
But you are a part of the app. You tap a button on the app and a car magically appears and rides you to your destination. You're ordering a transportation service by an anonymous driver.
Exactly now, if you were to offer your personal services with personal branding where you being the driver and engaging with the customer was part of it, I might see difference. But with taxi apps driver just fills the role of service worker.
I could kinda see point if we had actual ride-sharing, but Uber and Lyft are just renamed taxis.
I could kinda see point if we had actual ride-sharing, but Uber and Lyft are just renamed taxis.
Well, the apps have made calling a taxi easier than ever. I haven't ever called a taxi or ordered a meal by phone because of my mild social phobia, and I definitely can't even imagine doing that when drunk or high. But I use taxi apps all the time. It's super easy. That's the point.
Either way, this is an expected result of reducing/eliminating many of the (near-imperceptible) barriers to calling a taxi.
Either way, this is an expected result of reducing/eliminating many of the (near-imperceptible) barriers to calling a taxi.
This. I like online ordering and delivery because I don’t want to talk to anyone. And I’m not here to be your friend. You wouldn’t charge a friend for a ride, right?
Feels like just another expression of a wider anti-social tendency that is spreading in Western societies in general. To tie it in with another symptom: Lots of people use their telephones as anything but telephones -- they seem to be willing to go to great lengths not to conduct any voice calls on them. This is just another facet of that phenomenon.
Unless asked otherwise by the driver, I think etiquette compels the passenger to sit next to the driver and attempt conversation.
Really? Isn't the etiquette in something like an NYC Taxi to sit in the back? At least that's how it's been in literally every piece of media set in New York.
Is it wrong to prefer a quiet driver?
Right/wrong seems to be not really applicable as a choice of answer here:
What the article pivots on is that, earlier, human interaction was an essential part of the ride experience. You get into someone else's car and if only for etiquette, you have a conversation to make everyone comfortable among strangers.
Now the driver describes that the part of the human interaction clearly and distinctly has started to wane. This caters to people that prefer the quiet ride, adding to their popularity: Earlier, if really you wanted a quiet ride, you had to pick a different means of transport.
There's no right or wrong here. Just the insight that ride-hailing apps have become the catalyst for a situation (strangers sitting in a car together, basically pretending the other doesn't exist) that otherwise may not have existed.
Personally, I prefer quiet rides too, but I made it a habit to be friendly and courteous to the driver when starting and ending the ride, just out of respect. In my own experience that makes everyone a bit happier.
What the article pivots on is that, earlier, human interaction was an essential part of the ride experience. You get into someone else's car and if only for etiquette, you have a conversation to make everyone comfortable among strangers.
Now the driver describes that the part of the human interaction clearly and distinctly has started to wane. This caters to people that prefer the quiet ride, adding to their popularity: Earlier, if really you wanted a quiet ride, you had to pick a different means of transport.
There's no right or wrong here. Just the insight that ride-hailing apps have become the catalyst for a situation (strangers sitting in a car together, basically pretending the other doesn't exist) that otherwise may not have existed.
Personally, I prefer quiet rides too, but I made it a habit to be friendly and courteous to the driver when starting and ending the ride, just out of respect. In my own experience that makes everyone a bit happier.
No, and there are drivers who prefer quiet passengers. Those preferences usually make themselves apparent after some opening sentences. It's still important to acknowledge the human serving you by engaging for at least a few minutes.
This is the exact opposite etiquette I've heard from everyone that isn't me.
I sit in the back and attempt conversation.
I sit in the back and attempt conversation.