[jarrettch]

I'm black and live in a predominately minority neighborhood, Inglewood, CA in Los Angeles. It's not terrible, but does have some sketchy areas. I've requested rides to and from my home plenty of times with Uber, mostly without problems.

One time I got my request accepted by a driver(to leave my house), and they asked where I was going because they didn't want to go to a bad neighborhood. The driver mentioned I was lucky that they were "passing through" and they only pick up passengers in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Venice, Santa Monica, etc. The driver also said they turned down a white guy in a gang-infested neighborhood late one night.

They mentioned it helped that I had a good rider rating. Either way, they definitely considered canceling the ride based on location.

I've never tried to hail a cab from Hollywood or somewhere in LA headed in the direction of a black neighborhood, so I'm not sure if the experience is the same as it seems to be in NYC or other places for some black people. That ride did make me wonder how many Uber drivers actively avoid worser neighborhoods though.

[tim333]

I guess the cabs want customers that don't give them problems and use appearance as a proxy for that in the absence of other information. With rider ratings I guess that's better info than appearance. I chatted to one Uber driver who said he worked for another cab company before and had a problem with iffy customers just running away at the end rather than not paying which also is not an issue with Uber.