4 things Uber can do better for me.
Note: I drafted this article a few years ago in 2017, and am posting it in 2020 for my log-keeping as I look back over my growth as a product thinkner and #product manager. Uber probably does all of these things today, does it?
Refreshing to revisit, nonetheless!
Uber has a very prominent place in my life. If the world was to end and I was told I could keep only 3 apps on my phone, they would be Uber, a browser and a the messaging app where my friends and family are. When you love someone, you can’t help but hope that they would change to accomodate your needs. Here’s what I wish Uber would do for me:
#1| Allow me to message my driver ahead of my ride
Please!
Story 1 | The problem:
Last afternoon, what was supposed to a 30 minute Uber ride, costed me 65 painful minutes. Bangalore roads! Ugh. I waited, as I saw my Uber roll towards my pickup spot, but on opposite side of the road. It was oriented in the direction of the final commute and I didn’t want the driver to attempt a U-turn! U-turns are too costly on Bangalore roads. The traffic was bad. I urgently wanted to stop the car when it arrived, so I could cross the road and hop in. I called him through the app ahead of his arrival and yelled “Stop, stop” over the bustling traffic sounds, only to watch the car slow down, pause and then throttle forward again crossing right past my location while the driver kept saying “Hello, hello….” on the call. Alas!
I continued waiting where I was.
He reached my waiting spot after 15 minutes and a U-turn, and in about 20 minutes we were back to where we started after another U-turn- to continue the 30 minute trip of 4 km.
The two U-turns costed us 35 minutes. Exasperating! Why does Uber not give me a way to message my driver?!
Story 2| The problem:
I book 3 to 4 Uber rides daily. Many of them from home. That’s at least 30 rides a month. An irritating thing happens each time, while communicating my exact location within the apartment complex.
- Driver calls to annouce arrival and I tell him to come inside the apartment.
- Driver calls again closer to the apartment gate and asks for the apartment number- usually hands the phone to the security guard.
- I stop whatever I am doing or thinking and repeat my apartment number at least 4 times on an average while preparing to make my way down from 8th floor. This is a typical daily exchange-
Madam apartment number?
“D 802; “D for Delhi”
B 802?
“D! D! D for Delhi.”
Awaaz nai aa raha hai….(can’t hear you)
“Delhi <pause> eight <pause> zero <pause>two”
“EIGHT- ZERO- TWO! EIGHT- ZERO- TWO!”
“D for Donkey…eight….zero….”
- <Landline rings> Madam cab aaya
“Bhej do” (Let him in)
Cab rolls in about 3–5 minutes later. This whole transaction of gate to apartment costs 8 minutes and a loss of focus and peace. I’ve always wished that I could just message my apartment number, approve the entry, and be done with it.
#3| Give me a consolidated summary of my business trips, automagically.
Story 3
I visited Mumbai for an official trip. My hotel was 3 km away from office, and I Uber-ed every day to office and back for three weeks. On some days, I used the hotel’s drop service.
Once I returned, I had to submit office commute bills for reimbursement from my company. I logged in to Uber web-app and expected to find a place to enter “from” and “to” date, and get options to download a consolidated invoice .pdf or a .zip file that I could directly submit at office. I didn’t find any such option.
Instead, I spent a painstaking 90 minutes manually downloading each bill, and later merging the .pdf together on my Mac. It was absolutely avoidable redundant painful work. This is so easy to intelligently automate, that I’m surprised Uber doesn’t just give me a way to download a consolidated PDF of bills from a trip already! There are enough proxies to identify a business trips from recreational trips, like location logged differently, cabs taken at routine-ish hours between 2 locations (home and office) everyday…etc.
#4| Allow me to give in-ride feedback.
I haven’t always found the driver rating to be commensurate with ride quality. Sometimes I get into a 4.7+car, which has a broken down AC and smelly interiors…If nothing else, I want to let Uber know. Many a times, a ride experience is bad for various reasons- the AC doesn’t work, the car isn’t clean, the driver talks loudly in on the phone throughout the ride (very common in Bangalore!). These irritants are seem trivial, once the moment of the ride is past me. I will not go look up the ride and drop a rating, or will I rate this ride when I am booking my next ride. Not being able to complain about a bad ride, will keep bad rides in circulation, eventually diminishing user trust, and increasing their willingness to switch. If Uber really wanted to know what I think, it should show toast when I am in the ride, so that I can give honest feedback when the moment is ripe and I’m usually free, just compulsively checking the app for the ETA.
Bonus: Surprise me!
Give me a monthly commute summary, with some unexpected analysis! Maybe you can show me how much I spent on Uber last month, and how it stacks up against others who commute from my building to my office. Or how my Uber spends are fluctuating periodically. Or how if I don’t leave for Office by 9, I kinda never leave until 12. Or how my wait time is always high with an 80% probability everyday, if I don’t book an uber within a certain period and so son…
