Ridesharing services such as Uber, Lyft, and taxis are often helpful and an easy solution to get to your destination. Sometimes, it is not worth renting a car or going to the hassle of lining up transportation with a friend or family member. Maybe you just need a ride to the airport or need a lift while having your own vehicle worked on. No matter the reason, they are often handy.
However, there are some times when things get a little crazy and there are thousands of stories out there detailing the experiences of those involved. Check out these 30 of the strangest interactions of both the drivers and the passengers because it can be crazy on both ends!
“My dad is an Uber driver in Dallas. A few weeks ago, he got a call to a wealthy home in one of the suburbs. He showed up and a woman came out with a makeup kit. Apparently, her daughter was at the ACMs and forgot her makeup. He delivered the kit to a nice hotel near the award ceremony, and the dad came out and tipped him an extra $50 in addition to the preexisting charge. My dad informed the man that tips weren’t required. His response was, “Hey, you just saved me a drive home for some makeup.”
Salomon picked up a very anxious guy in 1980 who wanted to get to Queens as fast as possible. He says they had hit traffic on the 59th Street Bridge when the man uttered “those dreaded words: ‘I’ll get out here.’ ”
Salomon turned and glared. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“I . . . I want to get out right here. Please.”
“What are you going to do, walk? We’re in the middle of the bridge!”
“The other side . . . it’s moving faster.”
“The meter was $3,” Salomon writes. “He handed me three bills, opened his door, and got out of the cab. He then climbed over the railing that divides the two sides of the bridge and, to my astonishment, immediately found an available cab.”
“Do not bite your nails and flip them onto my car’s floor.”
“Uber passenger here: had a driver tell me he was changing his name to Nilrem, because it was Merlin spelled backward and he was a wizard.”
“I’ve only done about 10 or so rides before giving it up. One ride a dude and his girlfriend were having me drive all around town and make sudden stops so he could catch Pokémon.”
“When people expect you to speed because they called an Uber too late to get to their appointment will they also pay for the ticket and increased insurance? #notspeedingforyou”
“I had one passenger who claimed to be a vampire, but worked as an overnight bakery employee at a grocery store as his cover,” Alex, a driver in Kentucky, said. “Imagine a 50-year-old Eddie Munster, wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses at 1 am.”
“A passenger said they didn’t like the tone of the GPS voice.”
“Once I picked up a guy and his golf clubs, and once he got in he slid me a sheet of paper and asked me to fax it for him,” Gary, a driver in Hawaii, said. “I informed him that I didn’t own a fax machine and he replied that it didn’t have to be done right away. He was sure that I could find a fax somewhere around town, and he would give me a dollar for my troubles. “I’m easy going and wanted to help him, so I told him to get an email address for the person he wanted it to go to and I would scan it and email it to them. While he was still in the car he called the person for an email address and wrote it on the piece of paper and handed it back to me. When I finished driving for the day, I finally looked at the paper and it was a tax document from the IRS saying the man owed $17,000 in back taxes and penalties. I did scan and send it for him but have no idea why he would trust a stranger with this.”
“Just please do not throw up.”
“Was driving a guy around from the Silicon Valley who was on the phone the whole ride talking about million dollar deals and then couldn’t leave a tip on a $20 ($12 to me) ride. But he shook my hand so I guess that counts for something.”
“picked up 4…guys one day and their collective body odor was too much to bear. But what made it worse was that they requested I turn the AC off and I got hot boxed by the smell for a good 20 minute ride. I had to turn the app off and air out my car for a while after that one.”
“I’m a dad but it’s always a treat when passengers in the backseat are describing the wonders of childbirth.”
How would you like to step into a car and see this? This guy sure knows how to keep his passengers occupied during long, boring car rides. Time would just fly by as you go back in time to play an old favorite. What a good idea!
Was making chit chat with a passenger:
“What’s happening at <our destination>?”
“None of your business.”
“I was invited to a New Year’s Eve party because a couple wanted me to have a toast at midnight instead being of out driving,” Barb continued. “There are lots of very nice people in the world, and the media doesn’t talk enough about them.”
Took a passenger from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City and as we were almost to Iowa City she remembered that she forgot her purse in Cedar Rapids. So I took her back to where I picked her up initially. We call that sightseeing by Uber.
“We had just gone to an event with my college graduating class and it was absolutely pouring. We were in an area of the city that we weren’t really familiar with, so when the Uber driver was calling us and telling us where he was we just couldn’t see him (we weren’t really on the street and were taking cover under a roof so we had some trouble making out the intersections). A minute passes and we get a call from the driver asking us where we are as he’s trying to find us, as we explain we start to hear his voice getting louder as we see a man with a jacket running towards us. The man undoubtedly knew it was us calling and without any hesitation, this man throws his rain jacket on one of the girls and just takes us running to his car. Pretty cool dude, 5 stars right there!”
“Uber driver said “watch this” drifted and then crash into a post, had to walk 2 miles home on the freezing rain.”
We all know that feeling – driving home to the delicious smell of food we cannot eat yet. I can’t imagine having the patience of this driver during thanksgiving. Break out the turkey!
“Took a couple to a Friendsgiving and they had all the food with them. So that made the car smell really good. I wish I had more people transporting food and fewer people transporting terrible body odor.”
“The afternoon where I found a chameleon crossing the street in Burbank and rescued him. All he ever wanted to do was climb. I gave him to a reptile breeder in east Hollywood.”
Heated seats are a luxury that many cars do not have. They are wonderful and will keep you warm and toasty in cold weather or too cold of air conditioning. However, when the car is not equipped with that feature…it is a little unnerving sitting down to warmth.
Sometimes riders complain when a car takes too long and sometimes they complain when you get there too quickly. “I didn’t expect to get here in three minutes.”
“…was recently a passenger in an uber. It was a Monday morning, so of course I was a little down and not in the mood to talk too much. The driver starts going on about how beautiful the weather is and starts explaining a good day starts with being positive.. She then ask if i would like to see her book.. i was a little confused, but i said sure. She starts explaining that she carries this scrap book with index cards and markers for all of her riders. She said she usually ask them to write some sort of positive message or just tells them they can simply write whatever they want.”
“This book was filled with notes from people where we live, outside of the area, and even from people travelling from outside of the country. Some writing uplifting messages, some writing random funny lines, some drunks scribbling support for our sports teams, just so many different messages from so many random people on different walks in life.” “Before i got out, i told her how the messages completely turned my monday around for the better and i really appreciate what she does. She simply said, if she can bring a smile to someones face.. her day is made.”
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