I've taken Lyft a handful of times, and in my experience, it seems like it's only the new drivers that are awkward about this---after that, they usually do a good job of reading my body language and responding appropriately. I think I'd taken Lyft 5 or 6 already times before the first driver ever awkwardly initiated an actual fist bump.

Then again it's a paid service not kindergarten.

Holy hell is that off-putting. I had a few coupons for Lyft but I'll pass.

I should mention, though, that you can have the healthy culture of driver respect at a place like Lyft with the professionalism of Uber. Sounds like the sweet spot to me.

A little bit of friendly whimsy has actually proven to be a fantastic business attribute. Think Ikea, Southwest, Target, In n Out. But by all means, go with boring and inhumane.

well, they also say things like this, to be fair: http://view.lyftmail.com/?j=fe5012797d6400747012&m=fe6915707...

Not on their front page. It sounds silly, but I would happily use Lyft if they dropped the pretense of being your friend. I love using Uber because if I want to engage I can, if I don't, I can just chill out. They don't dictate or encourage one way or another.

Same with Lyft. But the friendliness is there if you want it (much more so than Uber in my experience). If Lyft dropped the friendliness and just tried to be Uber it would go out of business.

Just an FYI, your email and name are available via links off of that url.