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It Can Wait. The buzz phrase, popularized by AT&T in a public service campaign, urges drivers to show restraint with their phones.
But a growing number of drivers who make their living behind the wheel can’t wait. These are the drivers for Uber and its competitors, including taxi services, who, to make money, must respond nearly instantly to their smartphones.
When a service call comes in from Uber — by way of a loud beeping on the phone — a driver typically has 15 seconds to tap the phone to accept the fare. That can mean looking at the phone, seeing how far away the customer is and then making a decision. Failure to respond in 15 seconds means the fare goes to a different driver. In some cities, including New York, failure to respond to several calls in a row can lead to Uber’s temporarily suspending a driver.
In San Francisco, the home of Uber and the hub of car-service innovation, taxi drivers use software called Flywheel that aims to allow competition against Uber. It works like this: When a customer calls for a taxi, a message goes out to a handful of cabs nearest the customer; the fastest to touch the Flywheel phone app in response gets the fare.
If no one responds within 20 seconds, the call goes out to another set of drivers. Think of hitting a game show buzzer, but perhaps while winding through dense urban traffic, with fog or rain and cyclists and pedestrians.
The system puts drivers in a tough spot: answer or lose money.
This month, misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charges were filed against an Uber driver, Syed Muzaffar, who hit and killed a 6-year-old girl in a San Francisco crosswalk last New Year’s Eve. It is a matter of dispute whether Mr. Muzaffar was using his Uber software at the time of the accident.
Two lawsuits, one filed against Uber and another against Lyft, contend the services are negligent by violating California’s law against driver use of hand-held electronic devices. The lawsuit against Uber, a wrongful death complaint filed in connection with the death of 6-year-old Sofia Liu, claims that the Uber technology is “inherently dangerous,” said Chris Dolan, lawyer for the family, which filed the suit.
“We’re sacrificing safety for instant gratification,” he said, adding that the mother says that she saw Mr. Muzaffar using his phone.
John Hamasaki, Mr. Muzaffar’s lawyer, said his client was not using his phone at the time of the accident. Mr. Hamasaki said Mr. Muzaffar had not yet entered a plea to the manslaughter charges. The maximum sentence he faces is one year in county jail.
Abdoulrahime Diallo, a driver in New York and an organizer of the Uber Drivers Network, a group that he said had 2,500 members, said that the app had never been “personally difficult for him” because “it’s just a matter of pressing and accepting it and seeing where the fare is.”
At the same time, he said, “It can be distracting if you are driving and you have to look at the phone.” He added that Uber made it hard to resist because drivers can be penalized with temporary suspensions for ignoring or declining calls.
There is some logic to that, he said, in that he understands the policy to be that “if you’re online you should be willing to accept” fares.
But David Bruder, 36, a part-time Uber driver in the Palm Springs area of California, said that while he had not had any distraction problems, he would prefer to be given more time. Maybe 25 seconds, he said. Even “an extra five seconds would be great,” he added. “I don’t think five seconds for a passenger is going to make all that big of a difference.”
But a growing number of drivers who make their living behind the wheel can’t wait. These are the drivers for Uber and its competitors, including taxi services, who, to make money, must respond nearly instantly to their smartphones.
When a service call comes in from Uber — by way of a loud beeping on the phone — a driver typically has 15 seconds to tap the phone to accept the fare. That can mean looking at the phone, seeing how far away the customer is and then making a decision. Failure to respond in 15 seconds means the fare goes to a different driver. In some cities, including New York, failure to respond to several calls in a row can lead to Uber’s temporarily suspending a driver.
In San Francisco, the home of Uber and the hub of car-service innovation, taxi drivers use software called Flywheel that aims to allow competition against Uber. It works like this: When a customer calls for a taxi, a message goes out to a handful of cabs nearest the customer; the fastest to touch the Flywheel phone app in response gets the fare.
If no one responds within 20 seconds, the call goes out to another set of drivers. Think of hitting a game show buzzer, but perhaps while winding through dense urban traffic, with fog or rain and cyclists and pedestrians.
The system puts drivers in a tough spot: answer or lose money.
This month, misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charges were filed against an Uber driver, Syed Muzaffar, who hit and killed a 6-year-old girl in a San Francisco crosswalk last New Year’s Eve. It is a matter of dispute whether Mr. Muzaffar was using his Uber software at the time of the accident.
Two lawsuits, one filed against Uber and another against Lyft, contend the services are negligent by violating California’s law against driver use of hand-held electronic devices. The lawsuit against Uber, a wrongful death complaint filed in connection with the death of 6-year-old Sofia Liu, claims that the Uber technology is “inherently dangerous,” said Chris Dolan, lawyer for the family, which filed the suit.
“We’re sacrificing safety for instant gratification,” he said, adding that the mother says that she saw Mr. Muzaffar using his phone.
John Hamasaki, Mr. Muzaffar’s lawyer, said his client was not using his phone at the time of the accident. Mr. Hamasaki said Mr. Muzaffar had not yet entered a plea to the manslaughter charges. The maximum sentence he faces is one year in county jail.
Abdoulrahime Diallo, a driver in New York and an organizer of the Uber Drivers Network, a group that he said had 2,500 members, said that the app had never been “personally difficult for him” because “it’s just a matter of pressing and accepting it and seeing where the fare is.”
At the same time, he said, “It can be distracting if you are driving and you have to look at the phone.” He added that Uber made it hard to resist because drivers can be penalized with temporary suspensions for ignoring or declining calls.
There is some logic to that, he said, in that he understands the policy to be that “if you’re online you should be willing to accept” fares.
But David Bruder, 36, a part-time Uber driver in the Palm Springs area of California, said that while he had not had any distraction problems, he would prefer to be given more time. Maybe 25 seconds, he said. Even “an extra five seconds would be great,” he added. “I don’t think five seconds for a passenger is going to make all that big of a difference.”
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