Sunday, February 7, 2016

How I Am About to Save Uber $20 Million

By this open letter:

Dear Travis Kalanick,

The absolutely worst text I want to see from an Uber driver when I am on the sidewalk in the  middle of a block where there are four lanes of traffic in front of me is:
Hi, This is your Uber driver I am directly across the street from you.
I have a workaround for this that I use most of the time. I go to the nearest street named alley (There are plenty in SF) and call for a car to that location. The car picks me up there, None of this, "Hey, I am across the street, let's see you dodge traffic." for me.

But I suspect most people have not thought of the workaround.

I recently struck up a conversation with an attractive gal in the North Beach section of San Francisco It turned out she was a senior player in high tech company but she had not yet figured out my workaround, She had called for an Uber at the corner where Kearny, Columbus, and Pacific streets intersect in quite a mad fashion.  She was on Kearny and gave a Kearny address for her pick up, The Uber driver showed up on the Columbus part of the intersection---on the complete opposite side of Columbus. That's a dart across 6 lanes of traffic, with cars coming at you from 5 different directions.

I recently sat at a restaurant on Market St. I was watching the street scene outside. It turned into a double-header Uber dodge traffic game. A couple on my side of the street, called for an Uber, The driver showed up on the opposite side, With luggage in tow, they dodged the four lanes of Market St. traffic to get to their Uber. Just minutes later, a couple, also with luggage, called for an Uber on the other side of the street, That Uber car showed up on my side of the street. The Uber dodge traffic game occurred in reverse.

One of these days someone is going to get hit playing this Uber dodge the traffic game and end up with severe injuries or maybe even get killed,

In this day and age, when one of these accidents occurs, some slick lawyer is going to sue Uber for not properly training drivers to the fact that the Uber pick-up service should not be turned into a passenger dodge traffic event. It will cost you $20 million.

I would recommend that you train your drivers to show up on the same side of the street that your passengers are requesting pick-ups from.

Sincerely,

Robert "In the alley" Wenzel
Editor & Publisher
EconomicPolicyJournal.com

1 comment:

  1. Why not just respond, "Great, I'll wait for you here."?

    ReplyDelete