The rides were in NJ. I had a 5.0 before these 3 rides. Requested a driver rating from Uber and it shows less than 5.0, so I requested Uber to let me know what I did wrong. They told me I got low rating for being rude to the driver. How can I be rude when I was busy replying to emails throughout the trip? The phone was on silence, so there was no noise. Am I required now to entertain the driver? My routine has not changed in the last 3-4 years of riding Uber and the bad rating kicks in right after the lawsuit settlement.

Is your situation a hypothetical? Where's the evidence that pax ratings matter?

If a driver cancels on you the app finds you a different one IME, you're not wasting any time. The new driver may be even closer to you than the old driver.

If you can't get rides and you attribute that to your rating, create a new account. Everyone starts with 5 stars.

Ah... New Jersey. I hope you adjusted your driver ratings as appropriate.

Or a driver may not be available within 10-15 minutes of you... or already heading away from you on the freeway...

Ask any "experienced" Uber driver about pax ratings and acceptance rates... to earn bonuses, drivers can't outright reject requests and disqualify themselves from the bonus. Instead, they accept them (to keep up the acceptance rate) then cancel (no hit on acceptance rate). Couple that with many drivers saying they won't pick up under a certain rating (4.0 or 4.5 seem to be a popular threshold), and you start seeing the results. My ratings apparently haven't been a problem, but a couple of times, I've been on the wrong side of a surge area, so drivers have canceled on me (after accepting) in hopes of getting a surged fare instead.

Yes I did. Also passed their information to friends who take Uber all the time to avoid them.

If you're someplace where there could be no other drivers within 10-15 minutes, then Uber is not dependable transportation in that area, no matter what your rating is. You'd need a scheduled car service.

Cancellations are also monitored by Uber, whose research scientists have the upper hand over drivers playing games.

So in your advocacy of tipping, your foremost argument is that it is not prohibited. You understand that tipping Uber drivers is inconvenient by design and contravenes custom, yet you insist that non-tipping customers are hypocrites by way of imputing us (baselessly) as adherents of a philosophy that customers, not businesses, bear responsibility for the livelihood of their workers. You deride us as cheapskates -- that is your prerogative. I continue to believe there is nothing cheap about using a service in accordance with expectations and social norms.

If the day comes that tipping is customary on Uber, I will tip, regardless of how much my driver otherwise makes.

Moo says the cow in the herd. Unable to think for himself and help his fellow man earn a living.

The overwhelming majority on this thread say don't tip, don't tip, don't do it.
I say who cares what the norm is, help a brother out.

[Moderator edit to reflect since-deleted quote.]

I don't object to drivers making more money: I object to the off-platform side-bribe that is creeping into the system.

It's not up to me (the rider) to determine what an equitable wage for Uber drivers is. That's up to them, by whether or not they choose to open the app and make rides available. If we (the collective ridership) aren't paying enough, then they don't log in and surge pricing is needed to entice them. If Uber, the platform owner, is taking too big of a cut then that opens opportunity for Lyft or others to capture more drivers.

Let the system function as originally designed. The laws of economics will take over. The side-bribing isn't fair to anyone - the platform itself, riders, or the tax authorities.

Putting it in the app isn't an excuse: it's a recognition that if this scourge is forced to exist due to some court agreement, that it's done above-board and in the light.

Best post in the whole thread. Bravo ^

[Moderator edit to conform to deletion of original quote.]

1) I am more likely to tip if it were offered in the app. Uber doesn't offer it. Almost all taxis and ride share platforms (including Lyft) offer a way for customers to tip without cash. Uber is behind the times if they expect their customers to tip.

2) When I first began to ride Uber, I was under the impression that Uber rates were high enough to essentially make a driver whole without getting a tip. Uber has since slashed rates to ward off competition and to attract new customers in kind of a bait and switch play.

3) Uber has consistently marketed its service as being cheaper than a taxi. When I start tipping, it becomes as expensive or more than a taxi. Again, a bait and switch.

4) If Uber really wanted to help its drivers, it would reduce its own take rate on a fare and reallocate that money towards gratuities to drivers.

5) Tipping, and stereotypes about tipping, can lead to all sorts of discriminatory behavior on the parts of passengers and drivers based on all sorts of categories (race, sexual orientation, origin neighborhood, destination neighborhood, style of clothing, whatever). Uber as a service helped get rid of a lot of this. Introducing tipping, especially a cash only system, may reintroduce these biases.

This.

Why not let drivers set their own rate? Make it true dynamic pricing. In fact, i heard Uber be referred to as the eBay of transportation. Letting providers set their own rates would also go much farther to prove that independent contractors are that which uber says they are.

Sidecar was a rideshare offering that allowed drivers to set their own prices.

Keyword "was."

Why are you trying to equate the fact that Sidecar drivers set the prices (really, more like heavily influenced) to their demise as a rideshare platform? Do you have actual proof of this?

"Michael Jackson was a singer who could moonwalk.

Keyword 'was.'"