Mask Wars: Uber/Lyft edition. Ride-hail drivers and passengers square off.
Accusations are flying, everyone is presumed guilty, accounts are in jeopardy.
This week, I took an Uber to a television studio to do a segment on mask mandates for CNN. As always, I threw on my N95. The driver asked me where I was headed. I said something brief, cutting off the small talk, because I needed the time to quietly run through my on-air talking points. No problem, the driver said.
After my live interview about a half hour later, I found that Uber had sent me the following email:
An email I received from Uber falsely claiming I had not worn a mask on my last ride. In fact, I wore an N95, as I always do in ride-hail vehicles.
The false accusation—that I had not worn a mask during my ride—was infuriating. In fact, I had been so focused on mentally rehearsing my TV talking points during the ride, that I hadn’t asked the driver to stop looking down at his phone a few times, which is one of the most dangerous things a driver can do. Now I was being accused of being the safety threat?
Well, dear reader, I was pissed. I tried to reply to the email, only to receive a dead-end autoreply. I clicked the “Learn more” option to contest the claim. Several clicks later, I realized it would take me a while to figure out how to do this. Uber does not make it easy to push back!
So, I did what any person with 96,000 Twitter followers would do. I aired my grievance to the general public. Within seconds, the official Uber twitter account responded, promising to look into the incident. Soon after, they apologized and gave me a $5 credit on my account.
What had prompted my driver to fling the accusation at me? Had he listened to my CNN interview on satellite radio and disagreed with my take that mask mandates needed to continue in many places (but that we need to tie them to better metrics)? Had he been offended by my tamping down of his small talk? I’ll never know.
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I quickly learned, though, that my experience was not isolated. Several people on Twitter responded with similar stories. Their stories, which they gave me permission to share (lightly edited for clarity), are illustrative of what seems to be a growing problem: anti-maskers weaponizing ride-hail policies to punish the very people who simply want everyone to do the right thing. The stakes aren’t low: “Riders and drivers who repeatedly violate mask policies may risk losing access to Uber.” Lyft has a similar policy.
•Sri Srikrishna, of San Francisco, wrote:
“I was stunned when I got the message from Uber saying I wasn’t wearing a mask because I make great efforts to routinely wear the N95 respirator outside the house. Not to mention I’ve also spent the last 18+ months advocating that others, especially essential workers, use some form of N95 as well.”
Srikrishna also pointed out that the accuser need not provide any evidence. This is problematic because the current system assumes guilt and accounts get flagged, and potentially banned, based on accusations alone. “In the future, if Uber is going to send me an automated message critiquing my behavior and alleging that I am violating state mandates by not wearing a mask, the least they can do is to have the driver take a photo with the dashcam to prove it,” he said. “Short of that evidence, the accusation is gratuitous and unsubstantiated. The message also said Uber would make me take a photo of myself before I board the next ride, but that did not actually happen. Several times I have ridden since then, Uber has never required me to take a photo of myself wearing a mask.”
•A Florida rider wrote:
“It was actually my 13-year-old son that asked him to mask up, and I told the driver, ‘Sorry, we should have requested you mask up before we left.’ Next day we got the email from Uber, so we lodged a complaint and explained what really happened.”
•A medical student in Texas reported:
“I had a very uneventful Uber ride home….I was wearing a KN95 the entire time. About an hour after I got home, I got the same notification saying I had been reported for not wearing a mask. I was confused and honestly just hurt more than anything, because I always mask in public even when the majority of others here in Texas don’t. It was dark out so I thought maybe my driver just couldn’t see my mask. But I would’ve hoped he would’ve just asked if that was the issue.”
Like me, this rider also found the system for reporting a false accusation hard to navigate. “It took me a bit to report the incident with Uber, because my complaint didn’t really fit with any of the topics in the help section of the app. I also couldn’t figure out how to call Uber customer service or anything like that. Eventually I was able to submit a complaint and they reached out to me pretty quickly via email and said that the flag on my account had been reversed. Nothing else has come of it since.”
•Melissa from New Jersey wrote:
“The one thing about being flagged was the driver never said anything, even though I had two masks on for each time I was flagged. I just got a notification to my account. I have had drivers who didn’t have their windows open and I never complained. It was raining or cold. I get it. Life isn’t perfect. But then to get ‘a slap in the face’ flag for no reason? Not cool. The second flag was pretty funny since I was taking a Lyft to go get my booster vaccine. I did inform Lyft and they did pull the strikes off my account both times.”
But as Melissa points out, these accusations can be costly for people like her who don’t drive and who rely on ride-hail apps. “My biggest issue is if it continues, and if they deem it, they won’t pull the strikes off. Then, my ability to use [the apps] could be revoked because of it. That’s ridiculous when I am following the rules. They do have a part of terms and services where if you break the rules they ask for proof of wearing a mask before they let you get a ride. But then, it’s like, what if someone were to still choose not to pick me up because my account was flagged?”
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Uber and Lyft Drivers can also be on the receiving end of false accusations, and the implications can be equally if not more damaging, since their livelihoods are on the line.
•Chris Strub, a driver in South Carolina shared the following:
“I had a passenger who I gave a poor rating to because of her behavior, and in retaliation she reported me for not wearing a mask when I was actually double masked. Multiple reports, even if false, can jeopardize a driver’s account. I’m a three-year driver with almost 1,000 rides and a 4.95 rating here in Greenville South Carolina, which isn’t exactly the mask capital of the USA.”
The burden of proof on drivers appears to be the same as for passengers: the accused are presumed guilty. “The same way your driver reported you for being unmasked—passengers can do the same to us as drivers,” Strub said. “If it happens numerous times our account can be in jeopardy. I’m a huge stickler about masking in that situation and have done hundreds of rides without being reported. But one baseless report from a passenger gets you in the proverbial Uber doghouse.”
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Both passengers and riders need to be able to report unsafe behavior of any kind. But there clearly needs to be a better system to contest accusations. Regardless, with the mask wars having become political, it seems that ride-hail vehicles have become an awkward battlefield. In a way, this might have been predictable. When else are pro- and anti-maskers forced to sit quietly together alone in an encapsulated space for a prolonged period?
Do you have similar stories? Share yours in the comments below.
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