“Life has it woes so learn to be on your toes, be alert.”
― Bernard Kelvin Clive, Your Dreams Will Not Die
Last week, I returned to San Francisco, past midnight. It was about 12:30 am when I requested an Uber to go home, approximately 21 miles away from the airport. It was a business trip and I had a very long day. I was tired and sleepy but I kept reminding myself to not fall asleep during the ride back home.
I always ride shotgun(North American slang that means travel as a guard in the seat next to the driver of a vehicle. I learnt it a few months ago and wanted to use it :-) Anyway, that's not the point! ) because I like to speak with the driver. I have learnt a lot about different cultures and professions this way, particularly in Bay Area, which is considered as a melting pot of different cultures. However, I was so tired that I had no energy to talk to anyone then. I just greeted the driver and grabbed the seat at the back.
I was totally awake during first 8-10 miles but felt weary and sleepy enough, that I had to slap my face to keep myself awake. The trick worked for the first few mins, and then probably 4-5 miles to the destination, I dozed off.
During this time, the driver managed to miss 2 exits to the destination. I was lucky enough to wake up right before the next exit(to turn around to reach the destination). We were less than 500/700 ft away from the exit. I realized that the dude literally missed 2 exits even though he was using a navigation app. There was no traffic at all, in fact there was no other car on the freeway, so there was no reason for him to miss one. Additionally, he did not consider it was important enough to inform me. And on the top of that, we were few lanes away from the next one. We would have missed that too if he kept going. It just did not feel right but I wanted to give him benefit of the doubt. All this thought processing happened in a fraction of a second.
Even though I knew that he did, I politely asked him if we missed a few exits. The guy panicked and acknowledged that we did. He suggested that he noticed that I was asleep and he did not want to bother me. He quickly and abruptly changed lanes to make it to the exit. His demeanor at the moment was "odd".
Picture Credit : Google Images
I certainly did not have a good feeling about the incident and his reaction. I did not want to confront him at that time and just safely reach home. My feeling is that you have a better chance to control the outcome if you are in the front seat than back seat if you do and things go south. My home was only 10 mins away and I just wanted to get there asap. He apologized and offered to write to Uber for a full refund. I can't say for sure if I was being naive or a trust giver in this regard. I told him that it was okay and he should not worry about it.
I shared this incident with a friend over dinner last week. She told me about her friend's friend who has been missing after taking an Uber to somewhere. I do not remember the details. She suggested me to report the incident and it totally made sense, especially considering all the incidents/events that gave this company a reputation.
I contacted their support desk personnel who mentioned that someone would reach out to me to get more details and determine next steps accordingly. I just received a text response that says that they were sorry that the situation made me feel unsafe and they will take appropriate action.
I am not sure what are they going to do, if anything at all, but I would certainly want to share this with others. For me, it was a mistake, and it's certainly better to be more cautious and not doze off at all while riding with a stranger.
And I have no intention to scare anyone to be overcautious or over think their next ride sharing experience.
