frustrated lately that my rating as a
passenger in Uber is at 4.78 and falling
I mean, of all things, I don't even like the HN karma system. Arbitrary frowny faces for The Wrong Kind of Joke only now, scale that up first, just to taxi drivers, and then apply it to Society At Large, All Day Every Day.
Is it possible to fix this? Am I going to have to change my name, email, and phone number before I can use Uber again? And how is this AT ALL better than the old taxi system, where the taxi company owned the car and was able to insure itself against this kind of damage caused by passengers? Not to mention that if Uber is successful, it's likely to become the only game in town - whereas taxi services are quite diverse by comparison.
Also, why do you assume that I have to be a "bad person" to get a bad rating? What if I'm a minority living in an area where my background is looked upon with suspicion or hatred?
It is crazy the latter could land you on a blacklist. A rating system is not necessary. A reporting system for the rotten apples would suffice, and the rest of the customers would be unrated.
The guy brought to hospital may end up in coma. Not able to clean up.
With reporting you cannot have a pissed-off driver land a pregnant women on a blacklist because she delivered her child in the car, and there is now blood on the seats.
There is some occupational hazard for taxi drivers and others in public transport. The provider company or insurance should cover cleanup costs.
Every consumer interaction now rates you as a customer. Amazon will drop you if you return too many things. Uber/Lyft have ratings systems. etc.
Until we start making the holding of personal information the equivalent of holding toxic sludge, nothing will change.