Part rant/part question.

As I mentioned in another post, my last driver in DC, told me as part of casual conversation, that he won't accept a fare from a customer with less than a 4.75 rating. He also told me that other than airport runs, he limits his rides to the 'good' parts of DC. I thought that the driver's could not see destinations until after the ride is accepted.

My rant, from this morning. Uber/Lyft is fairly easy to find in the immediate suburbs of DC, including weekend mornings. I needed a ride this morning to pick up my second car from a shop and then meet some folks for brunch. Called for an Uber. Essentially the message said pickup in 10 minutes, drop off at a reasonable time. The screen goes through a bunch of gyrations, zooming in on the pickup address, zooming back out to the broader area. I did see a couple of cars, but those cars were at least 20 minutes away. And of course I get the message 'finalizing driver details'. Which makes it appear that a car is assigned.

And then nothing.

Try again. The fare went up 30% in 5 minutes. OK, still willing to pay that as I needed to get the 2nd vehicle. Same gyrations on the screen, same messages, but I didn't see any cars. I canceled, and of course get a message that a car would be assigned very soon. Still canceled.

I just went about my day with my primary car and I'll deal with the 2nd car tomorrow.

Anyhow, why does the 'technology' determine a pickup time, drop off time, and a fare if there are clearly no cars available? (And in my case, went through the cycle twice, calculating a higher fare the 2nd time). Does the fare keep increasing until a driver will pickup a ride?

Also, this was going to be a relatively short trip (20 minutes, going closer to DC), but can or can't the driver see the destination before accepting a ride? Maybe the two cars I saw just didn't want to make such a short trip?

Very frustrating. (And there are times I ask for a car, and say, pickup in 10 minutes initially, but by the time the car is assigned the pickup may be in 15 minutes or higher. The fare remains the same, but I don't get a discount when Uber/Lyft can't honor its original commitment.)

Does anyone on FT actually drive for Uber/Lyft and enlighten us?