# Wishlist for App and Dashboard



## rjenkins (Nov 30, 2014)

Here is my wishlist for improving things on the driver interface side. I'm trying to keep this somewhat realistic. My platform for driving is my own iPhone 5, so if you're on an Uber phone or Android, some of this might not apply to you.

*1. Allow options to tweak the ping.* In the settings, allow me to adjust the volume and/or change ping tones (other than by adjusting the phone volume). Also, I'd like to be able to make it ping longer, or perhaps flash the whole screen a couple of times so I can see it better on a bright day, or when I'm looking away in a dark car.

In short, I want to KNOW when I get a ping. I don't want to miss any.

*2. Show a ping counter or missed pings. * If I do miss one because I accidentally forgot to go offline, I want to know about it.

*3. Show me my acceptance rate in the dashboard. * If Uber is using it to rate my performance, let me know what it is so I can make it better.

*4. Normalize the driver rating between the driver app, the passenger app, and the dashboard. * If you can show cars in real time, you can also update the rating in real time, or at least daily. There's no good reason for showing two different ratings to me, and yet another to the passenger.

*5. Scrap the music through the driver phone. * Few people know/care about it, and drivers don't want it because it sucks on their data plan and infringes on bandwidth needed for critical operations like navigation. I think it is a cool idea, but is an example of Uber being a little too much in love with the technology. It does not work well, in practice. If I want my passengers to pipe their music through my system, I can easily hand them the aux cable to plug into their device. This does the same thing, with little trouble and no drain on my bandwidth.

*6. Show breakdown of toll/surge/etc in trip review on app, or at LEAST in the trip review on the dashboard.*

When I audit my trips after a day's driving, I verify that the tolls match, or at least very close to what's been charged on my tolltag account. If I am shorted on a toll, I contact Uber and have always gotten it adjusted.

The problem is that the only way to do this now is to go into invoicing to see what the toll is...and then go back to the fare review in the app to indicate I had a problem with the fare. It would be much easier if the toll shows up in the fare review, and I could hit a button from right there.

Maybe they intentionally make this hard so we won't bother, but I'm going to do my audits either way, to keep them honest.

*7. Give me a button to pipe start and destination addresses to my favorite mapping app. * I appreciate the convenience of the built-in nav, but other apps work better for most drivers. Streamline this, and everyone will be more efficient. (I've heard that Android may have this option in settings, but remember I'm talking iPhone, here.)

*8. Go offline after one ignored ping.*

I know some people who regularly ignore pings might not like this one, but for me, one ignored ping generally means I've been distracted away from my phone, and shouldn't be online at all. I don't want my acceptance rate to continue to take hits. One way of doing it might be to have two places to tap...one to accept the ping and another to pass it up. Doing either would keep the app active. Doing nothing would make the app go offline. Going back online is not difficult, in any case.

Adding a "reject" option would also improve the passenger experience, since hitting "reject" would allow the next driver to get the offer quicker, without letting the full 15 seconds go by.

I'm pretty sure that the reject/ignore option is something that Uber wouldn't like, from what I've seen of their corporate philosophy, but it does make good sense.

*9. Add a tip option.*

Yeah, yeah...you can change what you think is "Uber." Like it or not, tipping is part of American culture, and passengers ask me about it all the time. Discourage it all you want, but if the passengers to tip me, you should allow them to do it. We can't eat stars for dinner, or pay rent with them.

You say you want a cashless system, but you are forcing passengers who want to tip to dig into their pockets for the green stuff. If Lyft can do it, so can you!

That's all I can think of, for now.


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## just drive (Oct 29, 2014)

Don't zoom in on the pax location so I can call out the bs eta you show before I accept the ping


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

hate having to START TRIP *and* CONFIRM START TRIP
- we *should* have the ability to just start the trip with one click, and then have options to:
*PAUSE a trip*/pause all billing - and then choose to
*RESUME TRIP* and billing OR 
*CANCEL TRIP* and billing.


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## CityGirl (Nov 29, 2014)

Allow the app to operate in the background. Today's phones are serious tools, I want the ability to use my phone for something / everything else while waiting for a ping. It is okay to make it dominant from ping to end of trip, but give my phone back in the meantime!


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## UberXTampa (Nov 20, 2014)

A couple more:

* Add a compass to the map.
* When a ping comes up, do not hide the map and simply focus only on the street where the ping comes from. This won't tell me exactly where that pick up location is relative to my location. I need to know that before I decide to pick up somebody. Is it behind me or is it in the direction I am already headed? I can't tell. Instead, leave the map completely highlighted and show where the ping is coming from. Then I can easily decide whether I can accept this request or not.


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## MiamiFlyer (Sep 22, 2014)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> hate having to START TRIP *and* CONFIRM START TRIP
> - we *should* have the ability to just start the trip with one click, and then have options to:
> *PAUSE a trip*/pause all billing - and then choose to
> *RESUME TRIP* and billing OR
> *CANCEL TRIP* and billing.


Why would you want to pause/resume?


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## LAuberX (Jun 3, 2014)

Dashboard- Give number of rides given in the last week/month/year


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## uberguy_in_ct (Dec 29, 2014)

They should show on the app where the other drivers are without having to go to the pax app to view it. Maybe then you wouldn't give 10 or 12 drivers in a two block radius. Because we know Uber doesn't want to run in the background for very long, MUST BE ON TOP mentality so it can tie up your phone and you can do nothing else but look at your own little blue dot on the map. What purpose does that serve?


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## rjenkins (Nov 30, 2014)

uberguy_in_ct said:


> They should show on the app where the other drivers are without having to go to the pax app to view it. Maybe then you wouldn't give 10 or 12 drivers in a two block radius. Because we know Uber doesn't want to run in the background for very long, MUST BE ON TOP mentality so it can tie up your phone and you can do nothing else but look at your own little blue dot on the map. What purpose does that serve?


I agree. Uber knows that we use the other app to scout the location of other drivers, so why not just put them in the driver app.

I have enough stuff to switch to as it is on one iPhone. (Uber driver, couple of mapping apps, messaging, phone, etc). One less app needed just makes us that much more efficient.


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## rjenkins (Nov 30, 2014)

CityGirl said:


> Allow the app to operate in the background. Today's phones are serious tools, I want the ability to use my phone for something / everything else while waiting for a ping. It is okay to make it dominant from ping to end of trip, but give my phone back in the meantime!


What platform are you on, CityGirl? My driver app runs fine in the background on my iPhone 5 (on the AT&T network). It will go offline after a while if I don't switch to it, occasionally, but I regard that as something of a feature, rather than a negative. All I have to do to keep it going is tap "Stay Online" occasionally when it flashes a warning.


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## rjenkins (Nov 30, 2014)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> hate having to START TRIP *and* CONFIRM START TRIP
> - we *should* have the ability to just start the trip with one click...


From what I've read, that's an Android thing. On the iPhone, one swipe is all that's needed to start trip, and then another to end trip.

I like the fact that it's a swipe, rather than a single tap, since a tap would make it easy to accidentally start or stop a trip.


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

MiamiFlyer said:


> Why would you want to pause/resume?


It could be for any number of reasons, two that come to mind are:
a) Pax needs to make multiple stops and instead of making a new Uber request each time, wants to make sure they have me (and I'm willing to wait)
b) stop for gas


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## MiamiFlyer (Sep 22, 2014)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> It could be for any number of reasons, two that come to mind are:
> a) Pax needs to make multiple stops and instead of making a new Uber request each time, wants to make sure they have me (and I'm willing to wait)
> b) stop for gas


A - Keep the clock running, Make them pay you the wait time, if you are willing to wait for them.
Why would you be willing to wait for free AND miss out on other calls?
Wait time generally does not pay

B - Gas up between rides, not during them, your customer does not want to visit the gas station with you.


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## just drive (Oct 29, 2014)

Solution for A: balls
Solution for B: brains


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

MiamiFlyer said:


> A - Keep the clock running, Make them pay you the wait time, if you are willing to wait for them.
> Why would you be willing to wait for free AND miss out on other calls?
> Wait time generally does not pay
> 
> B - Gas up between rides, not during them, your customer does not want to visit the gas station with you.


In most cases I do both. And 'generally' is my point - there are exceptions - instances when it is to my advantage to 'pause & resume' a trip. I should have that option available to me. More options = better driver experience. Don't preach the Uber kool-aid of "you don't need that - we know what's best for you".

Though the chances of me continuing to drive at all with today's 23% fare decrease is highly unlikely. From $1.25/mi to $ .96/mi.
35 MPH of one hr of non-stop driving = around $6.90/hr after Uber fees, gas, maintenance and depreciation. In my area, you generally have to drive 2 hours to get paid for 1 hour - so that's $3.45/hr. Just not worth it that rate.


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## MiamiFlyer (Sep 22, 2014)

ummm....no uber kool aid from my mouth.
Only trying to stop you from hurting yourself.

A pause button is as dumb as ending the ride early to help someone with Surge.
You can only hurt yourself with a pause button.

but yes, new rates under $1/mile is just quitting time.


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## Tommy Tours (Sep 19, 2014)

when the customer address is entered while closing in on there location, don't know the nav. out and just say customer destination added. Some areas get tricky when not in your comfort zone (out of town pings).


Agree with tip button.

Also put numbers next to stars 1-5 I've seen new and second time customers ask me there ready to hit the first star and I show them 5 star.

A start the fare button after 2 minutes automatically, customers see some times it takes 8 min. to get to job, you fit arrive and then another 5-10 minutes to come out.


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## Txchick (Nov 25, 2014)

rjenkins said:


> Here is my wishlist for improving things on the driver interface side. I'm trying to keep this somewhat realistic. My platform for driving is my own iPhone 5, so if you're on an Uber phone or Android, some of this might not apply to you.
> 
> *1. Allow options to tweak the ping.* In the settings, allow me to adjust the volume and/or change ping tones (other than by adjusting the phone volume). Also, I'd like to be able to make it ping longer, or perhaps flash the whole screen a couple of times so I can see it better on a bright day, or when I'm looking away in a dark car.
> 
> ...


I don't really care what Uber does with their app because I know longer drive for them.


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## Worcester Sauce (Aug 20, 2014)

rjenkins said:


> Here is my wishlist for improving things on the driver interface side. I'm trying to keep this somewhat realistic. My platform for driving is my own iPhone 5, so if you're on an Uber phone or Android, some of this might not apply to you.
> 
> *1. Allow options to tweak the ping.* In the settings, allow me to adjust the volume and/or change ping tones (other than by adjusting the phone volume). Also, I'd like to be able to make it ping longer, or perhaps flash the whole screen a couple of times so I can see it better on a bright day, or when I'm looking away in a dark car.
> 
> ...


With rates now headed to $.65/$.75 in many cities, none of the other shit matters anymore.


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