# ETA more than doubles after accepting PAX!??!



## UberDriver2014 (Oct 31, 2014)

Why (rhetorical question) does the Uber app tell me a pax requesting a ride is only 5 minutes away ETA. Yet, when I accept the hail the ETA jumps to double or even more!??!

I had one request that said my ETA to the pax was 8 minutes. After I accepted it, it jumped to 21 minutes!

I asked the pax and he confirmed it did the same thing on his end.

I assume this is to convince the pax an Uber driver is nearby and to use the service. And to convince me the pax is close enough to make it worth my while to accept the hail.
Only after we've both committed does it tell us the truth.

I image this is the reason for several of my pax cancellations.

Total B.S.


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## Mike Vidal (Jan 10, 2015)

You just figured out that the app lies to you on both sides. The riders app shows ghost cars all the time.


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## fargonaz (Oct 30, 2014)

Mike Vidal said:


> You just figured out that the app lies to yo on both sides. The riders app shows ghost cars all the time.


And you know this, how?


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## UberDesson (Jan 18, 2015)

UberDriver2014 said:


> Why (rhetorical question) does the Uber app tell me a pax requesting a ride is only 5 minutes away ETA. Yet, when I accept the hail the ETA jumps to double or even more!??!
> 
> I had one request that said my ETA to the pax was 8 minutes. After I accepted it, it jumped to 21 minutes!
> 
> ...


I had similar situation. The app says 4 min and I got to the rider in 8 min. When she gets in, she told me that the ETA changes several times from 4 to 5 to 8 min. Go figure...


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## Mike Vidal (Jan 10, 2015)

fargonaz said:


> And you know this, how?


Well, for one it is rider psychology, show cars close to me and I won't have anxiety about how far a car is. Second, I was parked, light at ether end of the block was red, street was empty and rider app shows a car going past me in the opposite direction. Saw this several times with the rider app. Don't believe everything that you see with the rider app.


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## Showa50 (Nov 30, 2014)

fargonaz said:


> And you know this, how?


I've requested cars a few times lately and took screen shots of what was shown to me and which car I ended up being matched with. There were 5 cars closer to me than what I received.


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## BlkGeep (Dec 7, 2014)

It's showing the time for the first driver that didn't accept the ping, keeps the same time as it's passed down the line. For the pax it's changing as it gets kicked to drivers further away.


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## UberDriver2014 (Oct 31, 2014)

BlkGeep said:


> It's showing the time for the first driver that didn't accept the ping, keeps the same time as it's passed down the line. For the pax it's changing as it gets kicked to drivers further away.


That's not it. In my area I'm usually the only driver within 20 minutes most early mornings and days. I've been watching it very consistently and it does this now on virtually every call. In every instance it jumps by at least 50% and often by 100% or even 200%. Pax confirm I had to accepted the ping first because of how quickly the ping was taken.


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## UberOKC (Oct 31, 2014)

Happens to me all the time. Usually doubles from say 9 minutes to 18-21 minutes.


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## UberOKC (Oct 31, 2014)

fargonaz said:


> And you know this, how?


Prettty simple, just open the Pax app and move the pin around. I know for a fact there are lots of ghost cars appearing in the OKC market. I was downtown on a slow day and tried to drive past one or two on the map. There was never anyone where it claimed a driver was. I thought it could be delayed by up to 30 seconds so I gave up. Then the other day I noticed a cluster of Uber drivers on the pax app map in my neighborhood and knew that couldn't be right. I drove by just to be sure there wasn't a party going on. Nothing. Actually right now it shows three cars in my neighborhood and if you keep the map open many of the cars are in a loop so to speak. They move forward for 15 seconds and then skip back and repeat the entire process. Definitely ghost drivers.


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## krazydrive (Nov 18, 2014)

Its happening to all of us. Its a trick they use for us to accept every ride. And if you cancel enough rides they will email you and tell you that if you continue they will deactivate you. Cold blooded .


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## grams777 (Jun 13, 2014)

Apparently you're not the only one who noticed this:


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## PT Go (Sep 23, 2014)

Isn't there a lag in when and where drivers are shown? Where I am, there doesn't seem to be much difference when I take a ping as to the actual time. Might vary by two - three minutes. Maybe it has to do with what GPS is seeing.


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## lexus-sam (Dec 19, 2014)

I get false location requests and I get distance to rider location errors all the time. Glad to know I am not alone.


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## Moofish (Jun 13, 2014)

The answer is that the "estimate" that you get is a direct distance/radius from your location, it doesn't take into account driving distance.

I've had an instance where the estimate was 5min, but because I was at a harbor, it would have taken me 20+ minutes to get there, so I just canceled.

I don't think its something that they can fix easily, there would be too much time between the request being sent and the request being sent to the driver.

Its something that you get used to and when you get to know your area it gets easier, take a sec to look at the map before accepting the ping and make your own estimates.


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## jaymaxx44 (Sep 19, 2014)

Constantly, they just like to be able to claim pick up times are going down but it's total BS and most of the people I pick up comment about it.
I always tell them that I get a good laugh myself when I see it too.


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## Chewie73 (Jan 18, 2015)

I get the same thing. I get pinged for a ride that shows 6 minute eta and it went to 12 minutes after I accepted.

I've also had issues of location being off. The address of the pick-up didn't match where the pax was, but the rider icon was correct. The same the other way, the address was correct, but the rider icon wasn't.

I contacted support about this and this is the response I got from Kelley....
"Please note that the rider icon is always more accurate than the address on the application. You are able to zoom into the application to see exactly where the rider is on the map. I always recommend doing that first when you're looking to see where the pickup is!"

I try to use the Rider Icon and it's wrong. When I use the address over the rider icon, the address is wrong...


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## PT Go (Sep 23, 2014)

I did an experiment on Google Earth. I tracked from Point A to Point B. I chose a spot where there was a river, thereby forcing other than a fairly straight route. By GPS navigation, the distance was 2.4 miles (red line). When mapping for driving directions, the distance became 4.1 miles, the most direct route. By freeway, it climbs to 6.2 miles. The only thing I can think of is that when you first get the ping it is going by distance at a straight line. After you accept, it now switches to a navigation mode and is now mapping your driving distance, which more than likely is going to be longer. This agrees with what Moonfish offered and as he mentioned, looks like not easily correctable.


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## Radio (Nov 30, 2014)

PT Go is absolutely correct. If you have used any GPS application outside of the Uber ecosystem you go through the same issues. Also, using Uber as a passenger, I have noticed at times that when a driver arrives right in front of me, my pax app is still showing him a few blocks away.

From a driver's standpoint, sometimes you will also arrive much sooner than the ETA. That's why the "E" stands for "estimated", not "exact". 

I'm not saying Uber is completely honest about these things, but it appears most of these problems are GPS related, and not someone at Uber trying to **** with you on purpose (although I'm sure most of you will still believe that).

And the stories about ghost cars are just that, ghost stories.


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## rtaatl (Jul 3, 2014)

UberOKC said:


> Happens to me all the time. Usually doubles from say 9 minutes to 18-21 minutes.


This happened to me for the first time...I was looking at the location like 9 minutes my ass, lol! GPS said at least 15. Good thing the fare was $54


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## Actionjax (Oct 6, 2014)

I get the same issues. Most of the time it would be when I pass a rider on a one way street. The app tells me 1 min. But 6 - 10 min to get to them once you take in the turn restrictions and doing a lap around the block to get back to where they were. So ya...not always accurate.

The other thing that happens we have a section of highway in the city that runs over the lower street. Lower street it takes 5 min to get there...but if the GPS thinks you are on the highway overpass the Pax gets a quote of 15 min as they think you got to go to the next exit miles away. You can get a cancel if you are not out of the overpass shadow quickly.

I'm sure Boston and Chicago city drivers can have some of the same issues with the underpasses and tunnels.


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## UberFrolic (Sep 18, 2014)

Because it's bullshit that's why. You would think a billion dollar company can fix that. That's there on purpose so u can accept it and then your fkd cause if I cancel acceptance rate goes down.


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

Radio said:


> PT Go is absolutely correct. If you have used any GPS application outside of the Uber ecosystem you go through the same issues. Also, using Uber as a passenger, I have noticed at times that when a driver arrives right in front of me, my pax app is still showing him a few blocks away.
> 
> From a driver's standpoint, sometimes you will also arrive much sooner than the ETA. That's why the "E" stands for "estimated", not "exact".
> 
> ...


Uh, no. There are definitely ghost (non-existing) vehicles on the rider app that move in all kinds of strange ways. Call it delay, or call them inventions. Either way they are not always accurate by any stretch and in many cases, even with delays, not even really there a'tall.


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## Ehmtbescrewingus (Oct 16, 2014)

yep it happens and Uber knows it, that's why they crank out warning messages about acceptance rates.


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## Choochie (Jan 4, 2015)

UberDriver2014 said:


> Why (rhetorical question) does the Uber app tell me a pax requesting a ride is only 5 minutes away ETA. Yet, when I accept the hail the ETA jumps to double or even more!??!
> 
> I had one request that said my ETA to the pax was 8 minutes. After I accepted it, it jumped to 21 minutes!
> 
> ...


Exactly


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

What I hate about the lag time in GPS and PAX location is that I'm penalized for not accepting (or for cancelling) a ping that is too far from me - which drops my acceptance rate - which can detrimentally effect my qualification for the guaranteed hourly fares... but I'll be damned if I'm going to drive 20 minutes for a $4 fare. Uber needs to allow us to set limits on the ping radius - and/or stop penalizing us for cancelling absurd trip requests.


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## Fuzzyelvis (Dec 7, 2014)

Radio said:


> PT Go is absolutely correct. If you have used any GPS application outside of the Uber ecosystem you go through the same issues. Also, using Uber as a passenger, I have noticed at times that when a driver arrives right in front of me, my pax app is still showing him a few blocks away.
> 
> From a driver's standpoint, sometimes you will also arrive much sooner than the ETA. That's why the "E" stands for "estimated", not "exact".
> 
> ...


I need to figure out how to do a screen shot and show you my rider app with a pin ON TOP of a car down the road from my neighborhood outside of houston and the ETA showing 34 minutes....

In case that WASN'T clear I PINNED the ghost car.


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## Fuzzyelvis (Dec 7, 2014)

Ehmtbescrewingus said:


> yep it happens and Uber knows it, that's why they crank out warning messages about acceptance rates.


It also means that the rules about when to get the cancellation fee are unfairly applied.


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## Sacto Burbs (Dec 28, 2014)

The ping time is As the crow flies and/or without traffic.

I am across the river halfway between two bridges and often get the pings as the closest car.

Once I see the real ETA I check the rider app to see if there are any cars near the bridges, and if so I text the pax that there's a closer car and my real ETA.

When they hear the truth they usually choose to cancel. I go off-line, heaven knows what car they get.

On my 4.30 AM calls if they agree I should come I usually also send a text that says "airport?"

Don't know what I would do if they said no. They all said yes. I'll take the dead miles for an airport run.


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## Actionjax (Oct 6, 2014)

To be honest I have also had this go the other way. (Remember only once) 7 Min Ping 2 min away when accepted.

Pax also was surprised and had to scramble to get ready and out of the house. Said 7 on the phone and I was there in less than 2.


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## ariel135 (Dec 2, 2015)

wiki leaks where are you when we need you. uncover their dirty laundry


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## MyRedUber (Dec 28, 2015)

Mike Vidal said:


> Second, I was parked, light at ether end of the block was red, street was empty and rider app shows a car going past me in the opposite direction. Saw this several times with the rider app. Don't believe everything that you see with the rider app.


When I've used the rider app to request a ride, the display of the car approaching has always lagged reality. The real car arrives well before the virtual car.
Watching cars on the rider app will tell you where they were a minute or two in the past.


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