Uber's latest update gives you even more ride hailing power
It's ridiculous, really, that there's anything to complain about ride-hailing apps that give us the power to summon our own personal chariots directly to our front doors—but hey, the system ain't perfect.
And one glaring imperfection? Wonky pickup locations. Sometimes digital lines are crossed, and you wind up sending your driver somewhere other than where you actually are, causing them to cancel the ride, ding your rating, and make you wait even longer.
A new update to Uber's app will let you switch up your pickup location even after your ride is already on the way, finally giving you a way to fix those jacked-up ride requests. The feature will begin rolling out today to iOS users in the US, Canada and the UK, with plans to expand service to all users in the coming weeks.
Using the new feature isn't much different than requesting a ride in the first place. Once the driver is headed your way, just tap "Edit" next to your pickup location address. You can then drop a pin wherever you're headed for the new meeting spot and confirm that you'll be there instead.
Drivers will be alerted of the reroute via push notification. That experience will vary depending on which navigation app is in use, although Uber's now pushing for drivers to adopt its new in-app maps feature that started rolling out earlier this month.
Uber told us you'll be able to move your pickup spot within a range of a few blocks once the driver's on the way, but didn't give an exact limit for how far you'll be able to go. The feature is currently being tested for UberPOOL, too, with plans for release in the future.
Riders aren't the only ones getting some love today—Uber also announced some new driver support policies in response to feedback from its workforce. Performance reviews of drivers stemming from complaints of poor service will now have a fairer, experience-based policy—in other words, claims against a driver with thousands of logged fares and three complaints will be handled differently than one with only 100 completed trips and three complaints.
Drivers will also be given a voice in disputes over wrong rider pickups and fare adjustments—before now, riders were typically given the benefit of the doubt. Uber will use facial recognition tech like Real Time ID to validate that a driver's identity if a rider claims the person behind the wheel doesn't match the picture on their app to settle claims more quickly.
The new updates give drivers and riders both a better experience, which is just about the only thing that Uber can lean on in the midst of its seemingly never-ending corporate controversies. "We know we have a long way to go," Ryan Yu and Rachel Holt wrote in the blog post announcing the updates in a rare moment of self-awareness.
Here's hoping all levels of the organization will take that message to heart. Fixing a product bug is one thing—fixing a bug in your company culture is another.
UPDATE: March 30, 2017, 12:59 p.m. EDT This article has been updated with new information.
Topics Uber
Brett Williams is a Tech Reporter at Mashable. He writes about tech news, trends and other tangentially related topics with a particular interest in wearables and exercise tech. Prior to Mashable, he wrote for Inked Magazine and Thrillist. Brett's work has also appeared on Fusion and AskMen, to name a few. You can follow Brett on Twitter @bdwilliams910.
