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Comment by drb91 | Hacker News Reader

This can’t be a surprise to anyone. I frequently have a driver who is obviously different than the one pictured in the app. Some of the drivers I get have been in the country for a matter of weeks or even days, leaving me to wonder how Lyft or Uber verified their ability to drive to sufficient standards—I’m guessing they do virtually nothing beyond confirming the name matches a valid driver’s license.

Talk about an industry that needs regulation!

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> I frequently have a driver who is obviously different than the one pictured in the app.

Do you continue the ride? Do you inform the company?

> Talk about an industry that needs regulation!

I infer that you use Uber/Lyft/etc despite your concerns. Why not instead vote with your wallet, and use one of those nice, government-regulated taxicabs?

I don’t know what my personal actions have to do with what I’ve observed—smells like ad hominem.

It sounds like you are an atypical user or distorting facts. No one I know (including ppl who have driven for these services) has ever experienced any of the problems you describe. I live in large metropolitan areas in the west coast.

I’m not sure why your single data point would affect mine.

well, you effectively said, "I don't know how this can be a surprise to anyone based on my single data point".

That’s pretty easy to fix directly by customers. If the driver doesn’t match the photo, then rate the ride 1 star and explain why.

I’ve done this a few times and gotten a personalized response from Uber every time.

It’s not the rider’s problem.

If a driver is committing fraud against the company by allowing someone else to drive in their place that day, who else do you think is going to report it?

It's no different from checking your dozen eggs at the supermarket to make sure none are broken before buying. Whenever you purchase any service or good, any responsible consumer verifies that what was delivered is what they ordered, and raises the issue with the company if not.

Users have no incentive to report. Reporting would not prevent this from happening again, even the next ride.

> I frequently have a driver who is obviously different than the one pictured in the app

Really? I've taken more than 1000 rides on both platforms combined and this has not happened to me once.

> Some of the drivers I get have been in the country for a matter of weeks or even days

How exactly are you inferring this information? I've never had a driver tell me this. Some of them have thick accents, sure, but so do some of my engineering co-workers who have been in the country for years.

> How exactly are you inferring this information?

I ask them how long they’ve been in the area; I’m a friendly guy, and people are surprisingly forthright.

When the driver doesn't match the picture in the app, Uber/Lyft haven't done any verification.

No, just someone else might be driving. They could do face recognition when logging into the driver app or something to authenticate the correct driver is driving or give the option to customers to confirm yes/no in the app when getting in the car.

They could, but have zero incentive to.

Also, people just might not care, possibly endangering others. Don’t leave it up to the riders.

They actually give the option and I think people should use it. https://i.imgur.com/A7Xs29E.png

Why bother? If it happened once it will happen again. You might as well throw a tissue at the sky in an attempt to stop the rain. They just don’t have any reason to care who picks you up so long as they get your money.

Of course they have a reason to care -- the worse quality customers receive, the more they'll defect to a competing service with higher quality.

All of capitalism is based on companies competing for customers by providing better products. The entire reason Uber exists is to provide a better product that taxis or Lyft. They have every reason to care, and there are tons of cases of drivers being banned from Uber because of repeated complaints. I believe your pessimism here is totally unfounded.

> All of capitalism is based on companies competing for customers by providing better products.

Not true at all. Lyft and uber are virtually identical; there is no consumer choice. Companies have an incentive only to provide a product that is not worse than their competitor, but the market is still anti-labor and anti-consumer.

If its reported multiple times they can take action. If not, well, its like voting. If you dont, you are supporting whatever the system is in the end. And they care because if there are safety issues it will hit the bottom line eventually.

> And they care because if there are safety issues it will hit the bottom line eventually.

Long after people die, I’m guessing.

Ah, thanks for sharing. Good to know. I usually give a low rating (and then Uber called me a few times to understand why), but this is much better!

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