# Can they find you by using the app?



## NotYetADriver (Oct 28, 2014)

Hello,
I was just looking at the Uber app for passengers.
Is the map accurate enough for someone to actually find your car just by zooming in on the app?


----------



## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

NotYetADriver said:


> Hello,
> I was just looking at the Uber app for passengers.
> Is the map accurate enough for someone to actually find your car just by zooming in on the app?


No, it's shadow cars.


----------



## NotYetADriver (Oct 28, 2014)

mbd said:


> No, it's shadow cars.


What are "shadow" cars?


----------



## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

NotYetADriver said:


> What are "shadow" cars?


They exist but they dont&#128516; ping can be given to somebody who is close or somebody far. So the pax sees the shadow cars.
If they show the real cars, then you might have a Benz close by and the pax's expectations rises .


----------



## NotYetADriver (Oct 28, 2014)

mbd said:


> They exist but they dont&#128516; ping can be given to somebody who is close or somebody far. So the pax sees the shadow cars.


I'm a noob, so I don't know what "ping" means. 

ok...but in my UberPAX app, the cars are actually moving.....like they are going down my street or nearby?
So none of those actually exist?


----------



## Daisey77 (Jan 13, 2016)

They can basically tell there are cars in the vicinity but they can't tell exactly the type of car or any other specific car related information. If you're asking if they can zoom in and see Hyundai Elantra? The answer is no. All the cars with the same. Now once they order and get assigned a driver, that's a different story. I don't know how specific it is but I had one of my passengers phones the other night because it was giving me a different pickup location than what he can order so I was kind of compare the app to see where the discrepancy was and it had the color of my car on his map. So at that point it was just me on the map since I had been assigned to him and the car was red. I asked him is that supposed to represent my car he said yeah. I said I didn't realize it whatever color the vehicle is that is picking me up, it changes that color



NotYetADriver said:


> I'm a noob, so I don't know what "ping" means.
> 
> ok...but in my UberPAX app, the cars are actually moving.....like they are going down my street or nearby?
> So none of those actually exist?


We honestly don't know how accurate it is. They used to be ghost cars and Uber referred it to as a screen cover and compared it to a video game. It only shows a maximum of eight cars I believe. 6 or 8.


----------



## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

NotYetADriver said:


> Hello,
> I was just looking at the Uber app for passengers.
> Is the map accurate enough for someone to actually find your car just by zooming in on the app?


Yes.

Uber knows where you are

Even with App. Turned off.


----------



## Skyscrapers (Feb 15, 2020)

I have two devices in my car so on many occasions while driving I have one online with Uber driver and then the other with Uber rider. I can see myself moving quite accurately on the rider app. I can also see out the window other Uber cars drive by me and on the rider app too. From those experiences I can say the car locations on the rider app are quite accurate and it shows a maximum of 8 cars in your vicinity.


----------



## Asificarewhatyoudontthink (Jul 6, 2017)

NotYetADriver said:


> Hello,
> I was just looking at the Uber app for passengers.
> Is the map accurate enough for someone to actually find your car just by zooming in on the app?


When Uber started thet it was 100% accurate. 
But, they found that riders would close the app and call a cab company if there weren't any cars visible within the default zoom (where the map opens to automatically). 
So, they started putting fake cars on the map so it would always show a minimum of 8 cars at the closest zoom. 
So, if there are no cars in your area they populate 8 fake cars and if there are 8 cars there are no fake cars.

It has changed over time. Sometimes it would show cars just vanish and it took drivers a while to figure out this was a driver that had just started a ride. Or was it just a fake car that popped off because an 8th real car came in...

And then they changed it so the closest zoom would show only real cars.... Then they changed it again... And who knows what data is being used to populate that screen now.



NotYetADriver said:


> Hello,
> I was just looking at the Uber app for passengers.
> Is the map accurate enough for someone to actually find your car just by zooming in on the app?


But, if you are referring to when you request a ride and the driver accepts. Their car will be the only car on the map and the relative data is as accurate as GPS in your area allows so if you have dead zones where your GPS bounces around like an ADHD child or just stops all together then that will appear to happen to their car as well as the app is using the drivers GPS.

So, yes, if you are planning on setting up an ambush for a driver, you can tell where the drivers car is.


----------



## Cdub2k (Nov 22, 2017)

NotYetADriver said:


> Hello,
> I was just looking at the Uber app for passengers.
> Is the map accurate enough for someone to actually find your car just by zooming in on the app?


I would say that the app is about 2-3 minutes behind real time. So if you've been stuck in traffic for a couple of minutes a passenger can find where you are using the app.I've had this happen to me dozens of times over the years during large events.

On the flip side I've heard it from many passengers that it said I was 2 minutes away even though I was outside their house waiting. That's why I started texting people once I arrived instead of letting Uber do it because it's not 100% accurate.

So to answer your question it's a yes and a no. Depends on the network connection apparently.


----------



## Amsoil Uber Connect (Jan 14, 2015)

If you are sitting at home and you have that target on your back, it's not hard to figure out. However Ghost cars happen.


----------



## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

NotYetADriver said:


> Hello,
> I was just looking at the Uber app for passengers.
> Is the map accurate enough for someone to actually find your car just by zooming in on the app?


----------

