From my experience with cab drivers (not Uber drivers), the idea is supposed to be that if you do not have a preferred route, the driver takes the most efficient route based on some kind of gestalt between lowest cost and fastest service.

The deal is, some passengers are convinced they know the best route from point A to point B, and will accuse drivers of trying to con them if they don't take that route. So if the passenger has a route they want to take, even if the route is stupid, you just shut up and do that. Otherwise, you take the best route.

In theory, of course. I have no doubt that there exist cab drivers and Uber drivers who run up the meter. Hopefully, Uber does some monitoring of routes and catches at least egregious cases.

I had a situation with Uber where the driver missed an exit, even though he had a GPS and it was telling him to take it. I think it was an honest mistake, and not him trying to run up the meter. But it bugged me that he didn't bother to do anything about it. That missed turn made the trip nearly 10 minutes longer and I had to pay for it. There should be some way for the driver adjust the fare to compensate for when stuff like this happens.

This happened to me too, except we ended up in an hour-long traffic jam. Still didn't cost very much, and traffic was pretty bad elsewhere, but yeah.

Basically, if your Uber driver starts using a traditional GPS instead of Google Maps, get worried. That's my experience using Uber in LA for longish trips out to Marina del Rey, anyway.

(Going the other way: "The LA convention center? Where's that?" "Right next to the Staples Center." "Do you know what streets?". I did, but really? I'm from New York and don't have a driver's license, and _I_ know how to get there...)

there is - the driver can end the ride early based on an informal estimate of the ride length. There used to be an insurance issue with this (not covered after the passenger leaves), but no longer.

I'm willing to agree with you about cabbies, but doesn't it seem absurd that Uber drivers ask for route information when they are already using a GPS-enabled smartphone with access to Google Maps' best routes for any time of day anyway?

It seems like a flaw in the Uber app that the customer can't just provide an intersection or an address, and the driver gets immediate turn-by-turn navigation. Yes, Uber still needs to blind the driver to destination until pickup, but it's not a huge obstacle.

Well, there will always exist people who believe that their route is better than the Google Maps route. Some of them will even be correct!

The other thing is that users just HATE typing in addresses on smartphones. It's like the worst-case scenario for smartphone data entry -- lots of different fields, and words that are not in the dictionary/don't autocorrect well. So Uber (and Lyft, and (ahem) Flywheel (which I work for)) do not require that a user input a destination.

The other thing is if you realize you get long-hauled, Uber support will respond to a query from you and adjust the fare if appropriate. Try that with a cab.