This Week: Uber Driver Uses a Stun Gun! And an Uber Link to Increased Drinking?

Check out our top stories! This Week In Rideshare News: New Uber driver policies could encourage driver destination discrimination, an Uber passenger gives a Georgia driver big tip so she could re-enroll in college, researchers says there is a possible link between rideshare apps and binge drinking, and an Uber Driver Uses a stun gun on a pax.

Goofy.

Hey, what’s up it’s Cecily and it’s this week in Rideshare news. I’m a grandma. It’s been a cool day. Want to get this video up for you guys, and then go back to the hospital. So let’s get started.

Uber driver policy could encourage driver destination

Last week Uber changed it’s policy allowing millions of drivers to see their rider destination. Well, while many drivers are saying “It took you long enough Uber,” some critics are saying this new info could cause destination discrimination. Particularly towards people of color and those traveling to lower income neighborhoods. Now these critics fear that with this newfound information that these drivers will decline these types of requests and lower income riders and folks of color will find it harder to find rides.

Sound familiar? Maybe the taxi industry? Now my personal thoughts are definitely in line with the critics. I do think that this is a possibility. There are some people who are just racist, classist, just don’t care and don’t want to be bothered. So I don’t want to spend too much time on that.

I would also like to highlight that most people who drive are goal or financial oriented, and I think most people would be happy to drop somebody off in a neighborhood if the price was right. In addition, I feel like most drivers know that you can always turn your meter off if you’re on a ride and it’s going to a destination that you’re not really sure about, or you just want to kind of get in and out. You turn that thing off, but when you drop that person off there are no new calls routed to you. So those are definitely options that I think that people should exercise when driving in areas that they’re not familiar with. So my hope is that this does not turn into something that will be used against people, and it will definitely be what is meant to be ways for you to pick the better rides to meet your bottom line.

Uber passenger gives Georgia driver big tip so she could re-enroll in college

I love this headline. Uber passenger gives Georgia driver big tip so she could re-enroll in college. Hello. It is the season of giving. And I wanted to share this story with you about somebody giving something to somebody else. Anyway, Uber driver Latoya Young, a single mother of three, fell on hard times. She fell behind on her payments to the university that she was attending, and they basically told her that she could not re-enroll until she paid her bill, which was $700. That was a year ago. She picks this guy up and I guess she tells him her story, and he gives her a $150 tip. Lovely. The next week he paid off her balance which was $693, and so it allowed her to re-enroll. Latoya graduates next week with an associate’s degree in criminology. Okay girl. She also plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in January. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what’s up.

I think we all have at least one story where somebody was like, “You know what? Here.” And you’re like, “Wow. Miracles do come true.” It’s always awesome to receive a very nice tip. Something that you didn’t ask for, something that may meet a need that that person did or didn’t know. I just think that’s super awesome. And if you’re listening to this and you use rideshare and you think that somebody is deserving of something like that, then go ahead and gift them. Tell them that Cecily told you to tip them. They probably won’t know who I am, but I was looking out.

Researchers says there a possible link between rideshare apps and binge drinking

So researchers say there’s a possible link between rideshare apps and binge drinking. Really? A study in 2015 revealed that the number one reason people use rideshare is so that they could drink. This team of researchers also found that alcohol consumption and binge drinking rose significantly, three to 8% respectively, in cities where rideshare services became available. Also in these cities where public transportation was definitely more relied on, this effect was much higher. So while it’s not safe to say if rideshare is actually affected the number of DUIs, it is likely that the amount of binge drinking that is going on, it’s definitely been affected by rideshare.

My question is, with the millions of people on the road, why are we not asking rideshare drivers? I mean they’re literally carting around millions of folks who are drunk. Rideshare drivers come in contact with the general public. I just don’t understand why these researchers are not paying rideshare drivers for all kinds of information. There’s a ton of things that rideshare folks actually know coming in contact with folks going all over the city. I mean there’s just so many opportunities I think for harvesting this information from drivers, and I would just be really happy to see that as being an opportunity for drivers to make more money off their knowledge. I know this was a huge tangent. I know it was, but I’m just trying to inspire someone to be like, “Can you go and talk to these drivers? They know all this stuff that you want to know but don’t know.” Too much?

Uber Driver Uses Stun Gun on Pax

Air drums. Now for my favorite segment, What would You Do? This story is shocking. You’ll find out how corny I am after this. Anyways, driver Stephanie Johnson posted a story on an Uber forum talking about an experience she had with an inappropriate driver. This thing went viral, and this girl is telling the story everywhere and I’m here for it. Her account is way more colorful than mine, too. There’s one point where she says, “My stun gun is my best friend.” I love that.

Well, anyway, here’s the synopsis. Stephanie picks this guy up around 2:00 AM. She says it was her last trip of the night. Y’all know about the last trip? She said immediately she could tell he was drunk, agitated, whatever. He tells her to turn off her cell phone. Yeah, so that he could give her instructions. So she’s like, “No bro. Uber tracks me through my cell phone.” So she tells him, “Be quiet, enjoy the ride.” Whatever, blah, blah, blah. She said shortly after that he grabs her breast, and then she pushes the 911 button. She pulls over, she elbows him in the face, and she grabs her flashlight, hits him with it, and realizes it’s a stun gun, okay? So then she starts to shock this guy. Tag back to where I said shocking story. I’m a comedian. Anyway, he gets out the car, he runs away.

There’s a link to an interview that she did, which was pretty funny and her post is pretty awesome. And my thing is, “You didn’t know that it was a stun gun? That wasn’t a selling point of the flashlight?” That’s hilarious to me. They also said that when she hit the 911 button that they didn’t know where she was. So does the 911 work or not? I mean, am I pressing the button? Do I expect to live or do I need to take this all into my own hands? I don’t know. I just feel like on the heels of receiving that report last week, so many media folk didn’t know that half of the numbers of people that were experiencing the sexual assault were drivers. They were literally flabbergasted. They really were like, “Wait a minute. Drivers are being affected?” Huh? I know they watch these videos, but do you really watch these videos? Half of the people assaulted are drivers. And they’re not just women, they’re guys too. So it’s just like, “what’s going on?”

Anyway, just wanted to share that story. I don’t know if y’all should run out and buy stun guns just yet, because I’m not sure how Uber feels about that in the category. When people ask me what do I have, I say “I have something that’s very creative.” So it’s in the creative category. So if something can be viewed as one thing but used as another. I feel like the flashlight slash stun gun is that. Anyway, if you like this video give me a thumbs up. If you’re not subscribed to this channel, please subscribe. If you don’t know who I am, my name is Cecily Jamella and I have a channel called Drive Girl Drive. Peace out. Bye.