Carpooling is a pretty rad concept — drivers get more people on the ride, users get to save some cash, and taking cars off the road helps save the environment. You’d think it’s a complete win-win…until you realize that it also necessitates users sharing a compact space with a complete stranger for a fairly long duration.
The boorish co-passenger has long been the bane of Uber Pool, and Uber’s now taking steps to make sure that it receives feedback on when passengers are behaving poorly. Starting today, passengers will now be able to tell the company if they feel that their co-passengers weren’t model Uber citizens. If users rate a pool passenger anything lower than a 5 stars, a menu will appear which will have a choice which says “Co-rider behaviour”. While there’s no star system like with drivers, users can now let Uber know if they felt that their ride experience was hampered because of their co riders.
This has been a much-requested feature for Uber worldwide, and even in India. Indian users have complained of being hit on during Uber Pool rides.
And, @Uber_India, we should also get to rate the passengers. I would like to flag off all the men who have hit on me in Pool rides. +
— Agratha Dinakaran (@Agratha) March 17, 2017
And others have complained of co-riders being late.
@Uber_India with the pool feature allow us to rate the fellow passengers. Don't like people who are late even when they are pooling
— Vaibhav Singh (@vaibhavy3k) August 24, 2016
@Uber_India there should be an option to rate fellow passengers in uber pool. Some people make you wait so much.
— Pawan Gupta (@travelinza) March 4, 2016
Apart from giving feedback about co-passengers, the new tab also lets users give feedback on other annoying aspects of rides, such as “Too many pickups”, and “Long route”. Uber’s aggressively promoting its Pool product across the world, because it leads to higher fill rates, more income for drivers, and more available rides for passengers. Fixing the Pool experience is critical to users adopting it in greater numbers, which makes it even more useful for everyone else.
And Uber’s betting big on ratings in other ways too — the company is also making it easier for riders to see their own ratings. Uber drivers rate their passengers after each ride, and riders with low scores can even be banned from using the service. Thus far, the cumulative score was hidden away into a sub menu for riders. Now Uber is going to prominently display riders’ scores right below their names, constantly reminding them of how drivers have thought they behaved.
Users taking Uber Pool rides from now on had better be on their best behaviour – the drivers and co-riders are watching.