Correlation between driver rating and quality
 

Is it just me or has this correlation strengthened?

For years I've been accustomed to a weak relationship between a driver's star rating and their actual quality. Of course Uber removes poorly rated drivers so this weak correlation shouldn't be a surprise. Lately, however, I've noticed, riding UberX primarily in San Francisco and New York City, a near-deterministic mapping:

• 4.95 stars and up: smooth ride in a new, clean, comfortable car with a very friendly driver
• 4.90-4.94 stars: friendly driver in a car that is inferior (e.g., smaller or older) but still meets UberX standards
• 4.80-4.89 stars: friendly enough driver in a good enough car
• 4.70-4.79 stars: near certainty of a flaw that significantly affects comfort on the ride:
  • aggressive driving
  • loud music
  • extreme air conditioning
  • strong odor
  • rolling down the window

I've noticed lots of drivers who like to have the windows down, but I've never had any pushback when asking them to roll them up, and I can't imagine deducting a star or considering that a "flaw". (obviously if they refused to roll the window up that would be a different story)

ditto for music, I've never had any pushback when asking for music turned down/off.

Are you using a minimum number of trips for the drivers? Otherwise, seems hard to believe one can discern between a 4.96 and a 4.94.

Given the post history, it may be just that the poster is trying to stir discussion, more than a concrete observation.

Or, as the quote goes, if you run into one bad driver, you ran into a bad driver.. if you run into bad drivers every time, you may be the problem, not them.

Personally, I notice no significant difference in those ranges.

My 4.90 driver yesterday did not understand that if there's a ROAD CLOSED AHEAD sign, it is probably not a good idea to take that road, and then he froze at the point of "you can't drive through this way." He also came very close to taking me down the wrong freeway at the 80/580/880 split.

It really depends on where you're riding.

In Boston, the higher rated Lyft drivers tend to be the worst (maybe they're newer?) and Lyft's ratings are meaningless since I've had some pretty bad drivers with a 4.9 rating, and also some really bad drivers with a 4.3 rating. Uber's ratings are mostly accurate across the board.

In Miami, ALL drivers have pretty low ratings on both Uber and Lyft, but I've actually never had any issues with these low rated drivers (except for one). Maybe people rate them low because they're all-business and not friendly/chatty?

Above 4.8 the car has always been clean, but other than that I haven't seen much of a consistent difference. I've had great drivers in older cars and 'meh' drivers in new cars.

I'll try to look out for any correlation on this going forward.