This Week: Uber Driver Caught Using a Breathalyzer?

This week: Uber Driver Gets Caught Using A Breathalyzer?! And Uber Tests A Video Recording Program

There’s a lot going on. Hey, what’s up? It’s Cecily and it’s this week in Rideshare news. In Nashville Uber driver gets caught using a breathalyzer during a trip, but it’s not what you think. In the video, you can hear him say, “Just had this put in today. I haven’t perfected it yet.” Now the rider actually complained to Uber and received $5 for his trouble. And I get you might be concerned that this driver had a DUI or whatever, but you made it to your destination, fine. And you have proof that your driver was at least sober. So I don’t really get why he complained, but it turns out the driver wasn’t reprimanded because one, he doesn’t have a DUI and he listed the car as a secondary vehicle, on his account and said that the car belonged to a relative.

Uber Tests A Video Recording Program

So last week we talked about Uber allowing folks to record rides. Now turns out Uber has been quietly testing a video recording program in Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, but is safety their only concern? Uber states that the video recordings are a part of initiative to capture objective data, about what happens inside vehicles during Uber trips, where disputes between riders and drivers play out without witnesses. So once a ride ends, both the rider and the driver can send their video to Uber for review. Now the recording feature, it’s a partnership with a company called [inaudible 00:01:42] a technology company that uses artificial intelligence to analyze video from vehicles.

Now the company uses technology to detect potential collisions and to warn drivers. It also uses facial recognition to distracted the drivers and to remind them to keep their eyes on the road. Now the camera also sends footage to Uber, if a crash is detected, a serious safety incident is reported, or a driver requests the footage. So if a driver requests the footage, the passengers faces will be blurred out in the footage, everything that’s sent to Uber employees, is visible for review during safety incidents. So these are my concerns. With the software, this company will be able to clock your driving habits, how often you are distracted, how possibly you treat your customers, and who’s at fault in the collision.

Now these things could be good things or bad things, because ultimately this footage can be used against you. The company charges $5 a month for this service. Would you be interested in using it? Uber may require identifying documents from passengers in the future. And Uber passengers that don’t use a personalized form of digital payment, a credit card or debit card may have to add identifying documents to use a service. On an Uber blog in Chile, they announced a pilot program designed to prevent malicious people from using the app. If the rider uses Uber credits to obtain a ride, you will need to add their ID to start the trip.

The only issue I see with this, is who’s to say that they’re adding their own ID. Especially if you’re like intending to do something horrible, you probably wouldn’t say, “Hey, I’m the one that’s going to do it.” I really do think that that selfie technology that they use for drivers, would be helpful in this case because if something happened, then you could refer back to this person being in the car. So this program will be testing in Brazil in 2020 and my hope is that it will be something that will be coming to the States shortly after.

Lyft Driver of The Year

A New York city Rideshare driver, Joe McLamb is awarded Lyft driver of the year award. Now, I didn’t even know this was a thing, but apparently Lyft ask riders to cast their vote for the best drivers and Joe won.

Joe was invited to celebrate his achievement at a party thrown in his honor. On the invite that I saw an Instagram, said that he received gifts as well. Here his pictured with John Zimmer, the co-founder of Lyft. I thought that was pretty cool. Have you heard of this award? I haven’t, but I think it’s great that people are being acknowledged for their achievements and for doing good work. These are the things that we should be saying in the news. Not these rogue people doing heinous things to help with people. Yeah. Okay.

What Would You Do? Uber Driver Hurls Passenger out of car

And this week’s, what would you do? TMZ shares footage of a Rideshare driver in Los Angeles, forcibly removing a passenger from his vehicle.

So it was stated that the two got into it because the rider refused to turn a song off playing on her phone. But when the driver told the woman to leave his car, she refused and she called 911. He then proceeds to opening her car door, grabbing her and her things and hurling them into the street. Yikes. So other drivers see what’s going on and they get involved and they basically hold the guy down until the police arrive. The woman suffers a black eye, twisted ankle, and a possible concussion. Surprisingly, the driver response is split down the middle. Now some say entitled riders will leave you no choice but to escalate a situation, until there’s nothing else you can do, but to force someone out of your vehicle.

Now I’m definitely not excusing this behavior at all and I feel like he went way too far, but throwing her, her stuff on the street, is just absolutely uncalled for. And looking at the footage he undoubtedly hurt her and that there’s just nothing that justifies putting your hands on someone, especially if they didn’t put their hands on you. But is there a better way to diffuse these issues? Should he have waited for the police to arrive? What are your thoughts? Thanks for hanging in there with me. I’ve got the flu and my gosh, it’s not good, but I appreciate you guys for watching this video. If you like what you’re seeing, please give us a thumbs up. It definitely helps to know that you’re out there watching, listening, and supporting.

If you’re not subscribed to Harry’s channel, please subscribe. If you’re curious about who I am and what I do, my name is Cecily and I have a channel called Drive Girl Drive. Peace out. Have a good one.