Bengaluru: Ride-sharing apps like Ola and Uber have been the centre of negative press numerous times over the past year. Reports ranged from drivers’ misbehaviour with passengers to outright physical assault. Now, a fresh incident with an Uber driver has come to light, although it isn’t as sinister as the previously reported incidents.
Surya Orungati, who booked an Uber cab from the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) to his place of residence, was left with no choice but to drive himself home as the driver of the cab was inebriated.
As the app user tweeted about his experience saying that since the driver was drunk and drowsy, he had the car pulled over and took over the wheel. He also uploaded an image of himself in the driver’s seat and the driver passed out in the passenger’s seat. Surya kept tweeting updates about the incident and even made a video. The driver, he claimed, wasn’t even the same as the driver shown on the app.
@Uber_India, the ride back from Bangalore airport was not quite what I expected. The driver was drunk and drowsy. I had to pull the car over to the side and I drove all the way home. Pic with the driver in the rider seat passed out.
You need to fix this @Uber , @Uber_Support pic.twitter.com/G7LB0caeTM— Surya Oruganti (@suryaoruganti) September 9, 2018
After the initial tweet detailing the incident, the app user tweeted again saying that the safety team at Uber, in response to his complaints, told him that passengers shouldn’t drive a cab because that’s a safety issue”. They assured that the driver would be educated and if there was a repeat of the incident, he would be terminated.
An Uber spokesperson, in response to the incident, said that while the company takes “all possible measures to ensure that drivers behind the wheel match the person shown on the app”, there might be some rare slip-ups. He advised that if such incidents do occur, the app users should “cancel their rides immediately and report the issue on the app so that immediate actions can be taken”. They also informed that the profile of the driver involved in the incident was taken down from the app and that the matter was being probed.
