does anyone actually trust UBER? if so, why?

"If Ted Bundy was alive today, he'd be a UBER driver" - my dad

My dad was in his late 20s when Ted Bundy was at large, so you can imagine his fear when he learned that anyone can become a UBER driver.

I think my dad has a point, can we actually trust the driver behind the wheel? Because when you enter into a UBER car, you're actually putting your life in the hands of these UBER drivers, a complete stranger, who might even be mass murderer, you are playing Russian roulette with your life.

I've never used UBER due to my dad's warnings, and I actually do see his point.

???

There's no reason not to believe them. IF ANYTHING THERE'S NO REASON FOR THEM TO BELIEVE US.

Please give me any scenario and I'll counter as to why that wouldn't happen.

You know a Ted Bundy can be your neighbor, the guy you passed on the street, your co-worker, your best friend. Living your life in a constant state of fear is not a life. Yes be aware of your surroundings and limit unnecessary risk. I have used Uber several times, I've also used taxis numerous times who's to say the yellow cab driver isn't a Ted Bundy.

Living your life scared that anyone can be a serial killer/rapist won't do you much good.

Obviously it's good to exercise caution but to a limit.

I've had better experiences with lyft.

I don't get the problem, if the guy from Married With Children was my driver that would be pretty cool.

@mikethekiller: is lyft only available in the U.S.?

I own a car so, I don't really care.

@fallschirmjager: When you only have one car and one motorcycle but you also have 5 family members with different destinations, things get complicated.

Yeah, it's not as big a uber yet.

So you're basically saying we shouldnt get in a taxi for the rest of our lives? Lets just walk home at 3am in the morning, its definetly safer...

Exactly, whats the point. For e.g I would still go to Barcelona on a holiday even after whats happened there. Theres no point living in fear.

@fallschirmjager: I own a car as well. But there are times when getting am Uber or using public transportation makes more sense. For example if I am going to the airport I will take an Uber rather than leave my car parked there for 2 months. At the airport i land at I will take an Uber or othet public transportation rather than renting a car. Going out in the evening with friends and I plan on having a few drinks I will take an Uber rather than risking harm to myself or others.

I prefer Lyft since they do background checks.

Gotta get where I need to go.

F*** yeah! I would've been stuck under scaffolding in Romania if it wasn't for an Uber driver.

It just came to my city and people love it. If anything, it would be cleaner than a taxi since people tend to clean their own cars more.

Wasn't there an already Uber Killer?

Anyway I wouldn't trust anyone, family, friends, nobody.

Look up the statistics of UBER drivers that are actually criminals or end up attacking people. I bet it's low. This is like the fear of being killed by a shark when you're more likely to be struck by lightning 3 times or something.

Pick Ubers with good ratings, problem solved.

Have you ever taken a cab in any major city in the US? Now that's a lot scarier than an Uber driver. And if you have ever had a cab driver in a third world country then you truly wish for the Uber driver.

Watch this video.

Where I live, UBER is at odds with our Department of Transportation, and why is this? Because anyone can be an UBER driver and this didn't bode well with our DOT, and because of recent incidents of hold-up and sexual assaults, luckily, no murder has occurred.

The incidents of robbery and sexual assaults were committed by drivers who had a criminal and sex offender records, and they were able to become UBER drivers because UBER doesn't do background checks on their drivers, and some of these drivers had drugs in their systems as well.

A Taxi driver, at least where I live, has to apply to become Taxi driver at our Department of Transportation, has to pass a background check, has to pass a drug test, etc.

So, I'd rather take a Taxi than a UBER.

@argonvegell:

Because anyone can be an UBER driver

Your very first statement is false, you can't be an UBER driver if you have commited any kind of crime

The incidents of robbery and sexual assaults were committed by drivers who had a criminal and sex offender records, and they were able to become UBER drivers because UBER doesn't do background checks on their drivers, and some of these drivers had drugs in their systems as well.

This is a moronic scenario, they will obviously get exposed easily if they do this. Not an effective way to commit a crime in the slightest since there are rating system and report system. I bet everyone in your stories are fired and in prison right now.

@khael: But the point is, Uber needs to do more to improve their background checks, especially in international countries, prevention in the key, and UBER isn't doing enough.

You are assuming that some of these drivers that commits these acts actually care about being caught, there are criminals that don't care about being caught, they get their kicks in raping and killing people, those types are psychopaths.

If you experienced one of these UBER driver crimes, will you use UBER again?

So, driver hired by UBER, a company with lax background checks vs a government issued Taxi driver who has been background checked by our own Bureau of Investigation, I'll take the Taxi, thanks.

@argonvegell: Even psychopaths aren't that stupid, come on now. Of course they care about getting caught, duh. They can't continue killing people in prison.

I don't know about your country but you need SKSC in my country to be an UBER driver which basically is a criminal record created by the government. You seem to have little to no knowledge about UBER before you assume stuffs, If you're that paranoid about getting in a car with a stranger then there's always a motorbike UBER and you can use UBER car when you're in a group. Taxis are hella expensive, not worth it at all.

@khael: You are giving human terms to a psychopath, a psychopath looks human on the outside, but on the inside, they are inhuman, and the reason why most of them don't mind getting caught is because they are crazy, they are psycho, they enjoy the act of torturing, raping and murdering people.

Taking a taxi is expensive, but are you willing to throw your life away for a cheap ride then? Isn't your life more important than a ride? Taking a taxi for me is an investment, that's also the reason why I don't invest in Bitcoin, I don't trust the currency and I don't trust UBER.

@argonvegell: I know and I already stated as why it wouldn't happen. Yes they enjoy raping and murdering people hence why they don't want to get caught. There's a reason psychopaths are successful, they aren't stupid.

I've also given my reasoning to avoid your second argument. Taxi = money grabbing bullshit.

You seem to ignore my reasonings and say you don't trust UBER even though I already stated why it wouldn't happen. The fact that you don't even know how UBER works make your argument invalid.

@nickzambuto: lol

@khael said:

Okay, I take deep offense to this because my sister-in-law's father is a 80-year-old Taxi driver, the man is the most honest person I've ever met, he lives in a very small house, he doesn't have internet in his home, because he's mostly doing his job as a taxi driver, he only goes home to eat and sleep, that's it, so my father-in-law is doing an honest taxi job and he even refuses when we try to give him money.

You also ignored my question, if you were a victim of one of these UBER drivers, would you take another UBER again? Apparently from your answers, you would.

And you seem to assume that UBER operates the same way all over the world, in your country, they need SKSC to operate, however, in my country, UBER is in trouble with our Dep. of Transportation due to their lax backgrounds checks.

@argonvegell:

Okay, I take deep offense to this because my sister-in-law's father is a 80-year-old Taxi driver, the man is the most honest person I've ever met, he lives in a very small house, he doesn't have internet in his home, because he's mostly doing his job as a taxi driver, he only goes home to eat and sleep, that's it, so my father-in-law is doing an honest taxi job and he even refuses when we try to give him money.

If I tell you that my brother (the nicest person I know) is an UBER driver, would you care? Because he is.... But it's irrelevant since we're not talking about that.

You seem to equalized all UBER drivers and Taxi drivers which is kinda stupid, Taxi is expensive in general hence why I said it was money grabbing. The driver has nothing to do with this.

You also ignored my question, if you were a victim of one of these UBER drivers, would you take another UBER again? Apparently from your answers, you would.

I only take UBER car when I'm in a group.... So if that happens, he'd be in jail by now because there's a goddamn report button.

My friend takes motorbike UBER every time she goes to school which is 5 times a week and she seems fine.

And you seem to assume that UBER operates the same way all over the world, in your country, they need SKSC to operate, however, in my country, UBER is in trouble with our Dep. of Transportation due to their lax backgrounds checks.

How would you know? Have you ever tried to become one? Your best source is your dad apparently, your family seem to hold grudge against Uber because taxi isn't exactly a thing anymore.

I trust myself. I don't trust people I don't know, but I'm not going to assume everyone is a psycho either.

@khael said:

Not everyone has the luxury of taking UBER as a group, most of the people who were robbed and sexually assaulted were alone.

I'm not saying all UBER drivers are bad, I'm criticizing the companies policies, apparently in my country, UBER's background checks are very lax, a lot of drivers with criminal records got passed their checks.

I heard about the story from our local news.

Also, I never said I had a grudge against UBER, I'm just criticizing their hiring policy, in fact, I want my father-in-law to quit being a Taxi driver, the man is 80-years-old, but he won't listen to us.

And you seem to defend UBER because your brother is one, hey, you said my family has a grudge against UBER, I'm just throwing that back at you.

@argonvegell:

Not everyone has the luxury of taking UBER as a group, most of the people who were robbed and sexually assaulted were alone.

Then take motorcycle Uber which is way cheaper btw. By your logic we can't eat anything on the street because there's no background check so one of them might be a psychotic murderer that uses poison which is incredibly stupid because you'll get caught easily, same case for Uber and taxi

I'm not saying all UBER drivers are bad, I'm criticizing the companies policies, apparently in my country, UBER's background checks are very lax, a lot of drivers with criminal records got passed their checks.

There's nothing to be criticized really. They do have background check and the rules are very strict, same goes for taxi and there are criminal cases for both. Are you implying that there's no criminal taxi drivers?

I heard about the story from our local news.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/taxi-drivers-criminal-convictions-given-licences-north-west-england-hundreds-a7660606.html

There you go... news

Also, I never said I had a grudge against UBER, I'm just criticizing their hiring policy, in fact, I want my father-in-law to quit being a Taxi driver, the man is 80-years-old, but he won't listen to us.

And you seem to defend UBER because your brother is one, hey, you said my family has a grudge against UBER, I'm just throwing that back at you.

Yup, if my brother wasn't an UBER driver, I wouldn't even argue a thing because I would have no idea how Uber works much like you.

@khael said:

Actually, something like this did happen at our school, a food stall was selling food on the street to students, and these students got very sick, and it was discovered that the cook was cutting corners and stuff, so he was jailed and the Dep. of Health made a law that says that if a food stall or a restaurant doesn't have a seal of approval then avoid eating there, so you can't eat anything on the street.

If there's nothing to criticize, then why did California issue an order to Uber to toughen their background checks?

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-updates-tighter-background-checks-for-uber-and-1472683639-htmlstory.html

This is exactly what our government told Uber to do as well.

I'm not saying there's no criminal taxi drivers, but since the government, well at least in my country anyway, is the one that issues Taxi drivers their licenses and our own Bureau of Investigation does their background checks, the risk of criminals as Taxi drivers is less.

Oh, by the way here, from the same link you gave me:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/uber-drivers-accused-of-32-rapes-and-sex-attacks-on-london-passengers-a7037926.html

@argonvegell:

Actually, something like this did happen at our school, a food stall was selling food on the street to students, and these students got very sick, and it was discovered that the cook was cutting corners and stuff, so he was jailed and the Dep. of Health made a law that says that if a food stall or a restaurant doesn't have a seal of approval then avoid eating there, so you can't eat anything on the street.

Exactly, he's in jail now.

If you're that paranoid about life then I can't help you

If there's nothing to criticize, then why did California issue an order to Uber to toughen their background checks?

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-updates-tighter-background-checks-for-uber-and-1472683639-htmlstory.html

This is exactly what our government told Uber to do as well.

Because someone will always find things to complain about, ALWAYS.

I'm not saying there's no criminal taxi drivers, but since the government, well at least in my country anyway, is the one that issues Taxi drivers their licenses and our own Bureau of Investigation does their background checks, the risk of criminals as Taxi drivers is less.

How many times do I have to say that there's a background check in Uber? The whole point of background check is to see whether this guy has criminal history or not which has been done in Uber as well. There's no guarantee if he never got caught or he has fake indentity. You also have no idea how strict is the rules to be an honest Uber driver, let alone a serial killer.

And if Uber's background checks are so good as you claim, then why did this happen:

Uber drivers accused of 32 rapes and sex attacks on London passengers over the past year

The same thing can be said for taxi so yeah.... He's most likely in jail right now too

The whole point of background check is to see whether this guy has criminal history or not which has been done in Uber as well. There's no guarantee if he never got caught or he has fake indentity.

@khael: In jail yes, but how did these sex offenders get past Uber's background checks?

My point is, Uber needs to prevents people like these from becoming a UBER driver in the first place.

Apparently their background checks aren't working.

Great, now we can't go to school as well because of this

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/ex-montgomery-county-teacher-found-guilty-of-sexual-abuse/2017/06/11/c1372fa4-4ec9-11e7-be25-3a519335381c_story.html?utm_term=.e1d1e94290f1

We can't work for anyone because of this

http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1451530/police-clarify-aya-boss-sexual-assault

We can't walk on the street because of this

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/world/europe/barcelona-catalunya-van.html?mcubz=0

There's no guarantee if he never got caught or he has fake indentity.

How in the f is anybody gonna predict the future? Things like this happen to EVERYTHING.

They pass the background check because

There's no guarantee if he never got caught or he has fake indentity.

Apparently we can't breathe as well because of this

http://time.com/4219575/air-pollution-deaths/

@argonvegell: Please stop nitpicking, it's horrible

If they never got caught then background check is pretty much useless, how do you explain those taxi drivers cases I gave you? I thought Taxi has the perfect background check.

@khael: Okay, let's just agree to disagree then.

I will never trust UBER for my public transportation, in fact, I hardly take the Taxi because as you said, they are expensive, since I don't own a car, I mostly take the bus, so I'll take the bus over UBER any day.

@argonvegell: Okay.....