On further reflection, I think we passengers might be able to make things less bad for the Uber drivers. DHH mentioned putting on headphones and not interacting with the driver at all when he uses Uber. I've never done that. More often than not, I chat with the driver at least a little during the ride. Once or twice, I used the ability of the Uber app to put my choice of music from Spotify on the car stereo. But then I felt uncomfortable doing that, because I was imposing my choice of music on the driver. So now, I'm happy to let the driver play whatever music he or she wants, or none at all. And I've never rated a driver anything other than five stars, since I know their ability to continue getting work depends on ratings.

So we need to remember that our Uber drivers, AIrbnb hosts, etc. are humans, not machines.