Sometimes I like to read tweets people send to the official customer service accounts for Uber and Lyft. They can be quite educational. You get a real insight into what some people think.
In this example, we have a person who did not appreciate the driver’s choice in radio stations.
If it was me, the nanosecond a passenger raised their voice at me, the trip would be over. There are a lot of things I’m willing to endure being a rideshare driver. Having someone in my vehicle raise their voice to me is not one of them.
When you get into my vehicle, expect silence
When I drive for Uber or Lyft, I don’t have music playing or the radio on. I would not subject my weird musical tastes on strangers in my car. When I’m by myself, I listen to podcasts and audiobooks. I find that if people want to listen to music, they’ll listen to their own music with earbuds. If there’s more than one passenger, they’ll want to talk among themselves.
Sometimes people just want silence. I respect that.
With over 1,300 drives under my belt, I can only remember one passenger asking me to play music.
As far as I know, neither Uber or Lyft have rules on what’s played on the audio system when driving passengers. I assume it’s something entirely up to the driver. I assume this because it’s their vehicle the passenger is riding in.
In a later tweet, this person told Lyft to stop hiring “trump/white supremacist” drivers. First of all, Lyft and Uber do not hire drivers. We are independent contractors. As drivers of our own vehicles, we use Lyft and Uber’s software to connect with people in our area who would like a ride. Secondly, can you imagine if Lyft and Uber asked drivers who they voted for in a presidential election and then used that information to add or remove drivers from their platforms?
In conclusion
I wouldn’t play talk radio in the car while driving a passager, but maybe it works for this unknown driver. In another tweet, you discover the ride took place in Tempe, Arizona. That’s a fairly conservative area. Maybe this driver has learned over time people in his market like to listen to conservative talk radio. I don’t know, it’s not my market. The point is, it’s up to each driver what is played or not played over the car audio system.