[ChildOfChaos]

A rating for Uber is silly. It's just a ride to get you to A to B, having a five star rating system is what creates a situation where leaving a 5 star review i the 'only acceptable rating'

I think maybe it should just be a few simple questions that are yes or no, based on did the driver follow procedures, get you to your location, provide a suitable vehicle etc. Maybe these questions are randomised so you only get asked one or two, to make the survey quick with riders that get a low yes rate on a certain question, having that question asked to more future riders to rank if it really is an issue or not, the app could even let you filter out riders based on certain feedback criteria if something is important to you.

[pizza234]

The variables in the quality of driving are far from being a few, and include:

- driving aggressively/dangerously/poorly - the above includes not being focused on driving (eg. talking on the phone) - reacting angrily to other drivers - driving illegally - allowing a ride without safety measures (eg. child seat), which is also a case of driving illegally - not replying to requests (messages) at all before actually starting the ride (which is important in case of particular needs), leaving the passenger without answer until the vehicle arrives

All of those are important, and they definitely need to be all provided - as a matter of fact, at least some are provided in case of ratings below 5.

Uber's star rating has a sensible design - anything below 5 requires the user to explain why. However, I believe that this skews passenger ratings toward 5 stars, even if just for the effort required, or even worse, because of the perception of hostility (AFAIK, ratings are given immediately, and the driver can get an idea of the rating of the passenger).

[JohnFen]

> Uber's star rating has a sensible design - anything below 5 requires the user to explain why.

That is not a sensible design at all. That's effectively demanding that all reviews be 5 stars.

[the_snooze]

They just need three options: Unacceptable, Acceptable, and Exceptional. Anything other than "Acceptable" requires a justification.

[fantod]

Agreed. Or have a function to report unacceptable behavior, but besides that no feedback is needed. I pretend this is the case. Never leave ratings anymore.

[ChildOfChaos]

Even a "Where you happy with your ride" Yes / No.

If yes, then do nothing else, if No, then allow an option to provide feedback that can be monitored in a data driven way so you can see any potential drivers that have issues, else ignore.

[tlogan]

Isn't that the way it typically works? If you rate an Uber less than five stars, the app will prompt you for a reason. This feedback system is one of the ways Uber surpasses traditional taxis in service quality.

If the car is exceptionally unclean (gross like hell) then a perfect rating isn't justified. However, it's generally advised to give a rating below five stars only for significant issues. If the driver gets you from point A to point B, isn't a five-star rating warranted?

Some people may not understand this, but that's the structure of the system.

[ChildOfChaos]

I think then this is an issue of UX/UI and the question should just be Were you satisfied with your journey yes or no? and then no, prompts further questions.

The confusion comes from it being different systems for different things, having a yes or no, would make it clear that is what it is. You rate a movie out of five, four out of five would be a pretty decent movie, but in your example it would mean that something majorish was wrong, considering completing the most basic task is 5 out of 5.

[dahfizz]

The issue is there is a 1-5 rating system, but the system is actually binary. 5 stars means the ride was acceptable, everything else means the ride was unacceptable.

Which is a reasonable rating system, but presenting it as a 1-5 stars is confusing and dumb.

[JohnFen]

> This feedback system is one of the ways Uber surpasses traditional taxis in service quality.

In my city, anyway, Uber does not surpass traditional taxis on service quality.

[paulddraper]

> did the driver follow procedures, get you to your location, provide a suitable vehicle etc

That's what the stars are for.

> I think maybe it should just be a few simple questions

Many people don't have the patience for one question, and you're going to ask multiple?

[wkdneidbwf]

exactly, starred ratings are weird for both the passenger and driver

..but they’re also fast to leave and well understood which i’m sure is why they’re used. if you started asking questions instead folks will stop providing feedback. maybe they could incentivize the behaviors through small credits for future rides or something.

[JohnFen]

> and well understood

I think they're clearly not well-understood. It's not obvious that a 1-5 scale is actually meant to be a binary one.

I was actually scolded by an Uber driver here on HN when I commented that I considered 3 stars to mean "average and acceptable". I was accused of destroying the livelihood of drivers. His perspective was that the only time you shouldn't leave a five star rating is if something was wrong with the ride.

The problem was that nobody bothered to tell me that the 1-5 scale wasn't intended to be a 1-5 scale.

[jghn]

> and well understood

Are they? There's not a universal definition of what any of the discrete star ratings mean.