[mitchdoogle]

Obviously the title is very wrong. The author says so themselves - if you fear for your safety, then a rating below 5 is completely reasonable. Which for me, has happened more than I am comfortable with. I haven't even taken Uber that often - maybe 30 times in the last 10 years - but at least 3 of those times I can recall actually feeling unsafe by the driver's speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, or near misses with other vehicles.

I do agree with the idea that it is a binary, though. Uber and other platforms should get rid of star rating systems altogether because it just breeds confusion. Some people (perhaps most) do indeed view it as a binary. But then there are people or situations where you find yourself wanting to rate a 3 or a 4 because the situation wasn't the worst experience of your life, but it was rather unpleasant for some reason.

Just ask people if they were satisfied or not, or if looking for something more, ask specific questions. Was the car clean? Did the driver follow the route they were given? Did the driver obey traffic laws? Was the radio too loud? Was the driver talking on the phone? These questions are easy to answer and give more information than a star rating.