Uber's Terrifying 'Ghost Drivers' Are Freaking Out Passengers in China (qz.com) 81
Several Chinese publications are reporting that "ghost drivers" are frightening Uber passengers into paying for trips they didn't take. Passengers in Tianjin, Qingdao, Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou have been canceling Uber rides after seeing creepy driver profile pictures pop up in the app. Quartz reports: Passengers using the ride-hailing app in several Chinese cities have reported seeing their requests picked up by drivers with creepy profile photos of zombie faces. According to Chinese news site Sixth Tone, the point of these ghostly profiles is to scare passengers into canceling the trip, so they are fined for a few yuan (less than a dollar), which goes to the driver. Other passengers have reported seeing their rides accepted, but then their trips were "started" by the driver on the app before they even get to the car. These "ghost rides" last less than a minute, with the driver charging customers between 8 and 15 yuan (about 1 to 2 dollars) for a ride that never happened. Calls to the drivers in these cases are never picked up, according to The Paper, a state-owned media. Passengers can however eventually be reimbursed by Uber China if they lodge a complaint.
How does that happen? (Score:2)
Re:How does that happen? (Score:4, Informative)
customers could review the drivers so we can call them 1099 workers and get out of the stuff that comes with w2 ones.
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comparable? Every time I have used uber it has always been at least 40% cheaper than a cab and a much nicer experience.
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Simple Solutions (Score:5, Interesting)
to the "ghost rides".
Modify the Uber app so that the rider has to confirm the start of the ride on their mobile device.
Reporting of "scary" profile pics should be simple as well - simple snapshot and forward - If proven - the driver takes a hit on their next 5 drives - say $1-2 per drive.
Problem solved.
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When a report comes in the driver has the options to respond:
1. "Yes, I was making scary faces and I'll stop now."
2. "I'm just really ugly."
Then they can get a star on their profile that says "driver fugly, not actual zombie."
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inb4 every single driver caught doing this goes with option number 2.
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What is it with people like you and your advocacy of slap-on-the-wrist punishments? This pathetic little punishment won't fix the problem; the solution is to ban these drivers for life once the company finds out that they're doing this. Uber is a private company and has every right to terminate a business relationship with a driver who is willfully harming its business and reputation this way, and absolutely should.
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That's called firing people and turns into an employer/employee relationship.
Re: Simple Solutions (Score:1)
What is with people on me you and your little slap on the wrist punishments? We should zombify the drivers and send them in their way to inflict even more terror!
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Modify the Uber app so that the rider has to confirm the start of the ride on their mobile device
So what happens when a passenger "forgets" to acknowledge the start of a ride? You'd have to have a system which would let the driver check that the passenger has acknowledge the start of the ride, and then there'll inevitably be issues with people not having a mobile connection to use to send the acknowledgement to Ubers servers.
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and then there'll inevitably be issues with people not having a mobile connection
Something tells me if you don't have a mobile connection then you're not going to be upset about having to acknowledge something you need a mobile connection to access in the first place.
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Modify the Uber app so that the rider has to confirm the start of the ride on their mobile device.
Suppose the user refuses to confirm the start of the ride to try to get it for free. What do you do then?
Reporting of "scary" profile pics should be simple as well - simple snapshot and forward - If proven - the driver takes a hit on their next 5 drives - say $1-2 per drive.
What's to stop people from just being jerks and reporting "scary" photos when it's not true? For example, person A has a grudge against person B and A knows that B drives for Uber so A gets a bunch of his/her friends to report B's photo as "scary".
Problem solved.
Maybe not for the reasons I stated but the thought also occurs to me that maybe Uber doesn't want to solve this problem for various reasons. Maybe it's rar
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Don't any decent people live over there?
No.
Or do all the decent ones simply say "screw this" and leave, because the Chinese people I meet locally are great people.
Yes.
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I learned that Samurais were basically taught to transition the unsheathing of their swords directly into a slashing attack. For some reason, they saw that as honorable.
I found that it helped me understand Pearl Harbor from the JP view.
--
"Know your enemy" - Homer
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Japanese honor is real, although not universally applied. The last war basically run by samurai, the Russo-Japanese war, was fought very honorably. Inside the Japanese caste system, honor in wartime is pretty much limited to warriors, and arming the lower classes has typically led to atrocities. I hope they've changed that.
Japan did not rape and pillage any part of Asia except Japan for centuries, although you could argue decades in the case of Korea and Okinawa (and while Japanese treatment of them w
Re: Is there anyone in China who isn't crooked? (Score:1)
Hahahahahahh.
It's hard to imagine how you could be more wrong. Chinese only have deep respect for family . They have zero respect for the community around them and they treat service workers like they are less than shit. Ask any stewardess / hostess in asia.
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Always the same (Score:2)
People find they can abuse a system for personal monetary gain, so they do.
There will be solutions to these existing abuses but I suspect that the drivers will be able to devise new ones faster than the Uber developers can mitigate against them.
Well, you have to hand it to those Chinese. (Score:3)
They sure are enterprising.
[I say this as someone who is Chinese; irony disclaimers apply]
That isn't frightening (Score:2)
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Thing is, Chinese people are afraid of ghosts. For real. I'm a European with a Taiwanese partner, and to me they (Chinese people) are shockingly superstitious. Graveyards are to be avoided, if you've even been near a dead person (including a hearse driving past on the street) you'll probably have bad luck for days because a ghost is following you, etc. Just seeing a dead animal is apparently bad luck. Fortune tellers make a fortune (no pun intended) on giving people career and love advice. I can easilly see
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Not sure about that [rl337.org]
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Lodge the complaint (Score:2)
I sure hope they will lodge the complaint up someone's ass.
Uber doesn't work that way (Score:2)
You can cancel a driver immediately without penalty. If you get a driver you've had before and didn't like or it's a driver with a POS car or a driver with a poor rating that's your opportunity to cancel.
The ghost drivers that plague me, in a non-US location, are drivers who are faking their locations so the appear to be close but actually aren't. I think they are being ghosts for a different reason, fear that the taxi mafia in this country in cooperation with the corrupt police harass Uber drivers and i
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Post one: You can cancel immediately with no penalty
Post two: If the riders cancels five minutes after...
These two are in agreement, I don't know what is wrong
My sincere apologies (Score:1)
Sorry about that; I forgot my makeup and to shave.
Its a scam (Score:2)
make 10 fake uber driver profiles with "scary" pictures, collect from all the fake rides you didnt do, count on cultural fear of ghosts to not get complaints.
China is full of entrepreneurs like that.
Another example: Shenzhen police started a program rewarding traffic violation recordings from dash cams with straight up cash (something like $5?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
there are tutorials on chinese social media how to make good money inciting other people to brake traffic laws.
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Most people stop being scared of ghosts by the time they're ten.