UBER has decided to help out anyone who hates small talk by providing a new “Quiet Mode” feature for its app. The new feature is free and is being rolled out in the US but only for Uber Black and Uber Black SUV premium rides. The company might be hoping that the promise of a […]
UBER has decided to help out anyone who hates small talk by providing a new “Quiet Mode” feature for its app.
The new feature is free and is being rolled out in the US but only for Uber Black and Uber Black SUV premium rides.
The company might be hoping that the promise of a quiet journey will encourage customers to choose a more pricey ride.
Users will be able to select “Quiet Preferred”, “Happy to Chat” or leave the setting at “No Preference” on their Uber apps before they pay for a journey.
Quiet Mode is just one small part of an array of “Rider Preferences” features that the taxi company is launching.
The update includes a “Temperature” feature, which will allow customers to request for the car to be warm or cold, and a “Bags” option, allowing you to indicate if you have luggage.
All of these preferences can only be made before the ride is booked and not whilst a customer is inside the car, unless they personally ask for something like a change in temperature.
Uber Black drivers are now supposed to wait 15 minutes after arriving before they can cancel on you.
However, you will be charged and they will be compensated after five minutes.
Uber product manager Aydin Ghajar admitted to TechCrunch that quiet journeys is something that customers have been requesting for a while and added: “We’re looking to create more differentiation between the premium products and the regular products to encourage more trips.”
Due to employment laws, Uber can’t actually enforce that its drivers abide by the customer requests for quiet but it is likely they will do if they want to avoid a bad rating.
Last year, Uber was valued to be worth $120billion by experts.
An Uber driver was once suspended after secretly livestreaming female passengers so the internet could rate their looks.
But the company has been working hard to improve its safety and even created tech that could detect car crashes.
Do you like talking during taxi journeys? Let us know in the comments…
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