Lyft lets riders give mid-route feedback on shared rides
Finally, you can let Lyft know you're angry when it sends your shared ride in the opposite direction of your destination.
Lyft's adding a mid-ride feedback option in the app — and don't worry, the driver won't be affected. While in the middle of a ride, if you open Lyft, you'll see a prompt asking, "How's your route?" during the ride as it's happening.
The feature will be familiar to passengers who also use Uber. Back in May, Lyft's competitor added mid-ride tipping and driver feedback.
Lyft’s feature has the same rationale behind Uber’s: you provide more detailed, vivid feedback while something is happening. Once you reach your destination, even if your trip was delayed or harrowing, you’ve probably gotten over it. But Lyft wants to know those details.
Importantly, a driver's tip or rating won't be affected if you let the app know it sent your car on an inefficient route. Drivers simply follow the directions given to them, and with shared rides, picking up more people is unavoidable. But if it seems egregious that you're picking up another passenger while your ETA keeps ticking up, you can let Lyft know you're not happy.
Lyft says this information will hopefully translate into improved shared rides experiences.
A small group of riders started to see the mid-ride feature on Friday and it will eventually roll out to all users. The next step is for people on all rides, not just shared ones, to see the option, but for now it's just when you choose to carpool.
Now's your chance to rip into Lyft's navigating while it's happening instead of incredulously screenshotting your roundabout route and misdirecting your frustration onto helpless drivers.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
